Gundread Kitsune
by Kyuubi16
Summary: Naruto finds himself trapped on a ship of numerous beautiful women pirates. Good right? Not if count they live in an all women society and hate Men. Though when an old enemy shows up the two sides find themselves working together to survive. Especially when the descendant of the head of two societies becomes the target of said enemies. Hibikix?
1. The Incident Part 1

GunDread Kitsune

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Naruto x Harem

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''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

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Story Start

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Two Worlds…Two Sexes…Two ways of life. Tarak a world composed of nothing but men, and Mejare a world composed of nothing but women. Uzumaki Naruto had found himself on the former. For the past few months he had been covertly acquiring information, infiltrating Taarak to gain information. As a traveler he found himself doing this quite often, traveling to other dimensions, sometimes on his own and other times with allies.

At that moment he was on his way mission to board and capture or sabotage the enemy pirate ship. As he looked on from a distance he could see the fire fight between the men's Vanguards and the Women's Dreads.

Laser beam after beam was impacting the enemy flagship. He could see that the Mejare pirates planned on docking in on the Taarak's flagship and raiding it. He pressed a few buttons, putting his machine on standby mode as he teleported inside. As he landed down the ship began to brake up as the old Segment was blown apart from the rest of the ship.

Before he could act a body crashed into him sending them both down to the floor below. He was momentarily stunned from the impact as he took a moment to recollect himself. Reaching out, Naruto clutched something soft and squishy in the palm of his hand, eliciting a sound that was without a doubt, a woman's moan. To an inhabitant of Talark this girl would have been the enemy and they would have promptly freaked out , but for Naruto this was simply Tuesday. With a quick eye he studied her over.

She was definitely a cutie, her hair was dark, a blood red shade that looked like it would have trailed down to her legs like a long, lush kitsune tale. She was definitely a teenager, no older than 15 or 16 , with nice pouty lips and blue eyes. Her outfit consisted of a tight black tank top that ended above her stomach, with was flat and smooth looking along with a cream colored long sleeved jacket, short length boots and cream skirt that accentuated her legs.

"Wow! A real live alien!" She cried out in an excited manner. Something in her voice and facial expressions was cute, innocent in a naive in a sort of way. She looked at him was a deep amazement. She had reached out and touched one of her whiskers causing him to purr.

''You okay miss?'' He finally voiced as she blinked at him before finally answering.

''I think so...where are we?'' she asked, looking around. It looked like they were in a crystal chamber of sorts.

''I have no idea...'' He said looking around. ''A reactor room of some kind. But I'm going to take a long shot and assume you're a pirate?''

''Yep!'' She said cheerfully with a goofy like smile. ''My name is Dita Liebely what's yours mister alien?''

''Uzumaki Naruto,'' he introduced himself. ''But just call me Naruto.''

''You know I was told the men of Talarak were really mean and nasty…but you seem nice.''

''What can I say, I'm a guy who enjoys helping people, especially if their cute like you,'' He said with a grin as Dita blushed. ''By the way, I'm not really an alien or from Talarak. Sorry, but as much as I like to get to know you better, I really have to go.'' He said entangling himself from the girl. ''I really...'' In a moment his face went dark causing the girl to back up slightly as he growled.

''M-Mr. Alien...'' Dita stammered pit.

''Damnit...I didn't think he'd find me so easily. He's probably come for the Paeksis.'' Naruto swore.

''The what?''

''You know, the core of the battleship, mysterious crystalline entity.'' He explained as he pointed up to the Core of the ship. Dita seemed to move entranced, over to the thing and place a hand against one of the columns holding it up. ''So…it's lonely by itself…But now…I'm okay…I'm not lonely anymore.''

While this was going on the women pirates had finally secured the ship.

''Uugh, no matter how many times I smell it, the disinfectant is always to nauseating,'' Spoke the voice of one of the suit clad personal. She began removing her suit revealing her rather model like beauty. She was a tall woman with long lush golden blonde hair that reached down to her rather lovely posterior. Her face lacked blemishes of any kind, with pouty and ruby red lips. She was an extremely curvy one, particularly top heavy, heaviest amongst all her comrades in her compartment and the way she dressed highlighted it.

The rather revealing dress was a black style dress with an open front that went down to her navel showing absolute cleavage held by a metallic ring. It was held by thin leather straps with a type of collar. It also had slits on both sides of the long skirt along with ankles length boots and a rapier at her side.

Another woman also removed her hair with aqua hair who had some sort of circlet there with her that was covering the left side of her face. Her features were more along the side of tomboyish, on the short side; she was outfitted with a white and black outfit similar to a flight suit and while she was rather attractive like her friend she was shorter by several inches and she was more bottom heavy.

These women were respectively the second best and ace pilot of the dread squadrons.

''Has anyone seen the trainee?''

''I think I saw her crash near the engine room,'' Answered a new voice. Another dread pilot whose outfit consisted of a swimsuit like uniform. It showed upper portions of her breasts yet kept them covered and showed her back. She also wore thigh length boots, her outfit consisting of dark and light violet colors in a shade similar to her eye color. She also had emerald green haired held by some sort of decorative hairpin and wore a long glove, one half away on her arm and the other one glove-less.

The aqua haired woman scowl. ''Jura, Barnette with me...Paiway tend to everyone else who was injured in the battle.''

''Yes mam,'' Answered a young girl dressed in a French Maid Outfit, her hair done in two large odangos.

Naruto meanwhile was looking over at his damaged Vanguard. ''Damnit!'' He sighed as the combat unit was effectively useless.

''Mr Al...I mean Naruto is there something I can do?'' She asked poking her face near him as she bent over to look over his shoulder, her hands resting on her knees.

''No...it's busted to hell.'' The ship rumble as something impacted it causing it the two to tumble over. Naruto fell back and Dita on op of them, both their foreheads bumping causing them to wince.

''Ow...'' Dita whined as she massaged her head. ''That hurt!''

''Yeah, no kidding,'' He responded with an amused smile.''You might want to contact your captain and tell them to get out of here now! I'm not sure what kind of fire power you girls have, but the person who I think is coming is close then it's game over.''

In another part of the ship someone else was becoming aware of the situation. ''Report! What was the cause of that explosion?'' The person who voiced this was an attractive looking tall woman with dark, bronze like skin who looked like she was of Arabian descent. Her outfit consisted of an Arabian harem girl theme of a dark green color. The second in command was Buzam A Calessa otherwise known as BC to her companions.

''Commander scanners are picking up some new kind of mech,'' Answered a young, short, red haired pirate. Her outfit consisted of a white and green full body flight suit similar to Meia's very own. ''It seems to have no specific target and is firing on everything in sight. ''Do a scan and try to decipher it's abilities. Parfet we need to analyze the data and try to find the most effective weapons. Ezra contact the Dread Pilots.''

The former was a young woman dressed like a civilian with soft brown hair and a kind smile. Not the kind of person you expected amongst the pirates. The other was another one, a young girl with two extremely thick pigtails, an engineer's uniform with thick glasses. Another explosion shook the ship as the man's vessel blast by missile launchers.

''The shields have gone off line and secondary systems have gone offline!''

''What! From the shock waves of a single attack? Impossible!''

''Commander the mech has turned it's attention to us! It's pulled out a Beam rifle and is preparing to fire!''

''Energy readings are off the chart! We're not going to be able to dodge in time!" One of the Analysts cried out.

Unknown to all those on the ship the Paeksis began to glow as a bright light engulfed everything in sight. As this was going on, Naruto could feel it, a will to survive. The ship had disappeared from the spot as it was just as the beam from the enemy mech fired, piercing through the empty soundless void of space as it connected with a dwarf planet and blowing it to pieces.

_''Damnit! Looks like we missed him Vengeance! But without Virtue! Uzumaki won't get far!' _The pilot thought as he retreated to his base of operations.


	2. The Incident Part 2

Gundread Kitsune

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Naruto x Harem

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Author's Note

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My created opening. I've done one for Naruto of Justice with this song and I was not going to have all that hard work be for not.

This is the opening for season one. Give suggestions for songs you want as a season two, I'll listen to them and choose my favorite for a fan opening as well as give you a shout out.

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An image of red blood cells appears followed by White blood cells. The ligaments of the human body appear, followed by tissues and other identifiers of the human body. Slowly but surely the image expands before it reveals the image of the human body. The body disappears in a flash of green light as an image of the Nirvana flying through space appears.

An image of Naruto in Virtue appears. He's flying through space when in a flash Vengeance and Akuryou appear. Their beam sabers clash and both are forced away from each. He fires a charged particle beam to which Naruto narrowly avoids only to be hit by some missiles, sending him crashing into a meteor.

So now my time is up

Your game starts, my heart moving?

Past time has no meaning for us, it's not enough!

Will we make it better or just stand here longer

Say it "we can't end here till we can get it enough!

Right before he could be killed Akuryou is blown off course. An image of Dita, Meia, and Jura's dread flies by. The image cracks into three triangles showing their faces. A smirk formed on Naruto's face as Virtue dislodges itself from the meteor. The four of them begin flying at Akuryou when their developed by a white light.

Zettaiteki konkyo wa uso darake

Itsudatte aru no wa boku no

Jishin ya fuan o kakimazeta

Yowai you de tsuyoi boku!

Images of the Nirvana are shown. BC and Magna are on the bridge with the former giving orders. Amarone and the other navigators are on their consoles when data appears. It then switched to a view of Bart who was currently navigating, extending his out his hand and yelling something as a powerful beam of energy erupts from the Nirvana wiping out a squadron of enemies. Duero, Parfeit and the other members of the Nirvana are shown during their usual duties.

This is my own judgement! Got nothing to say!

Moshimo hoka ni nanika omoitsukya sokkou iu sa!

Kanzen kankaku Dreamer ga boku no mei sa

An image of the Blue giant is quickly shown destroying enemies with its twin canon. An image of Gundread Meia appears, slicing through one of the Sea Urchins with ease. Finally an image of Gundread Jura shielded the Nirvana from enemy attack, as it uses its disks to fire on the enemy.

Itsudatte aru no wa boku no

Jishin ya fuan o kakimazeta

Yowai you de tsuyoi boku!

Dark images of shrouded figures appear. Vengeance fires the Charged Particle gun and of Harbringer glowing with a menacing red light. Shadowed visions of the Harvester's forces then appear.

When I'm caught in fire

When I rise up higher

Do you see me out there?

I can't get enough! Can't get enough!

The image comes down to Naruto in the ship's bio garden. Suddenly he's glomp on his right arm by Dita. He's hugged from behind by Jura. An amused Meia stood off to his left, a brief flash of their machines appear behind him as everything goes to black.

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Story Start

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A yawn escaped from Naruto's lips as he slowly began to stretch. Opening his eyes, he took a moment for his blurred vision to clearly before he began to move. Sitting himself up, he found himself in a small jail cell. Two other males were there as well, one a tall, long raven haired man with a doctor's coat and a guy with short blond hair dressed in the uniform of a Tarak official.

''Hey aren't you that Doctor guy? Mcfile something?'' Naruto suddenly spoke up, figuring that he might as well pass the time until he could get a handle on the situation.

''Duelo Mcfile...'' He introduced himself. ''And aren't you that pilot Naruto Uzumaki?''

''That would be me."

''And I'm Bart Garsus…'' The other blond started to introduce himself, but Noticed Naruto seemed rather disinterested. "Well talk about rude."

''Where the hell is that hot red-head at by the way?'' Naruto couldn't help but wonder.

''Red-head? You mean another one of our own is here?'' The Tarakian asked as Naruto's face scrunched up in disgust at the insinuation.

"No I was talking about a woman.'' He answered the guy without thinking. He realized his slip when he saw the man's expression of horror.

''A woman! What is wrong with you man! Don't you know they'll eat your flesh!''

Naruto shook his head and groaned.''Nevermind, just forget I said anything." The blond said as he deciding to take his map, despite deciding not too long ago to talk to pass time. Though, his nap would soon be interrupted. The person who jostled awake was an attractive dark skin woman, with long flowing silver hair.

She had two girls with her wearing uniforms. They were wearing dark black pants and a blue and white uniform jacket that outlined their breasts. One was quite curvy; both top and bottom heavy while the other was slender.

''So I take it you need something from us?'' Naruto asked, making sure not to appear aggressive or threatening in the slightest.

"Before I answer you'll come with us won't you?" despite her phrasing it as a question, the undertone was clear that he didn't have much choice in the matter.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders and stopped up. ''I have nothing better to do, but do you mind picking that up for me?'' He asked gesturing to the egg shaped item he had sealed earlier. Soon he, the doctor and blond found their hands tied and were being led down the hallway of the infected ship. The three of them were soon escorted to a room.

"My goodness I heard you rounded up some prisoners, but they're just kids.'' The Captain, an old woman wearing some kind up coat with the primary color being brown said as she entered the room.

'Hhm...if I'm right then she's that famous captain of female space pirates? Lime? Strawberry? Something with fruits? Hhm...kind of reminds me of that old man...'' as Naruto fondly began reminiscing the strange egg like thing suddenly flickered to life. It hovered over to Naruto and yelled, ''WHAT WAS THE BIG IDEA OF SHORT CIRCUITING ME EARLIER!''

''If I haven't told you once Pry, I told you a hundred times, it's annoying when you jabber needlessly when we're in danger.'' The blond snapped in annoyance.

''Well if you didn't take those crazy risks I wouldn't yell at you constantly,'' The machine replied, acting surprisingly human.

''How Nostalgic. A Navi-robot and a working one too.'' The old woman said in a brief moment of Nostalgia.

"Captain we should get rid of them. Things are already unstable enough,'' Suggested the light blue haired woman from before.

_'Why hello, what's this?'_ Naruto thought as he looked the woman over. She had that whole Ice chick/Lone Wolf aura going, but she was definitely exotic looking. Athletic and serious also went synonymous with her character if he was right. _'I've been influenced more by my old sensei then I thought."_

The Captain raised her left hand from her cane. "No reason to be hasty Meia. We'll carefully consider how we want to cook these fellows up," The captain responded licking her lips afterwards.

Naruto laughed his ass off at the old woman's sense of humor. ''Obaa-san you seem like my kind of person.'' He said with a grin surprising his captors. He assumed they assumed he was a Tarakian and was going to freak over the little joke.

"So that long haired boy is a doctor, but what about this one?'' She pointed her cane at Naruto.

''A pilot,'' The blue haired pilot responded.

''To be fair, I just a pilot who was at the wrong place at the run time.'' Well technically for what I was trying to do it was the wrong time.

"There's something approaching," a bridge bunny announced over the intercom.

"Male reinforcements?'' The dark skinned woman asked.

"Actually its…"

"They're UFOs," Dita cried over the channel, cutting off the navigator.

''Hey if you happen to have a Vanguard stashed in this ship I can lend my aid.'' Naruto suggested, figuring it would be better to gain their trust. There was a good chance that Vengeance would catch up with them in a matter of days and without Virtue this ship would be a sitting duck.

The dread pilot Meia drew her gun from her holster and pointed it between Naruto's eye, ''And why should we trust you man?'' Her distaste in his gender was quite evident by her tone and the sharp look in her eyes. He recognized that look, that utter distaste for someone. That look brought back a memory of the first time he sparred with Sasuke.

''The way I see it is, if this ship gets blown apart I die. So I might as well fight as well.'' basic common sense 101. Naruto mentally chirp.

''And how do we know you won't run away?'' she questioned as Naruto derisively snorted in response to the accusation.

''Well if I did it would be the same as me sitting here tied up doing nothing? Hell I could shot down halfway through and then you'll never have to worry about me again or I could prove the deciding factor that turns things around.''

''Do it Meia...'' the old woman ordered.

''Captain?'' she questioned with a mix of hesitation and surprise.

''Let's see if this pilot can back up his talk.''

Meia wasn't happy but relented to her captain's command. Meia freed Naruto from his cuffs and led him to the launching bay. He was led to a rather old model looking Vanguard in the hangar. He opened it and jumped into the pit. 'This is going to suck.' Even after all this time Naruto hadn't adapted to Vanguards. No amount of tinkering or improvements would ever measure up to his partner machine.

''No use complaining about...'' He mumbled to himself as it powered up. ''Time for me to go kick some ass!'' He yelled as the vanguard launched out into the fire fight.

"The instruments are responding differently," Meia snapped in a huff of annoyance as her controls weren't responding to her input. Screens of Dita and Jura appeared from the viewing screen of Meia's cockpit.

An all-white Dread went soared through the dark void of space that surrounded her. Her enemy was nothing more than red dots on her screens, and through her hatch, they looked like nothing more than a large cube with two legs and two arms that did nothing really. The real threat was the short bursts of red lasers that it shot out of its tip on the center of the cube like structure.

"Dita, behind you!" Meia barked out, taking down another Cube.

Dita twisted and twirled through enemy fire, returning with her own, shooting only one of the five in front of her down. She didn't have the skills of her fellow pilots, but what she lacked in skill, she made up for in courage and heart.

Dita screamed loudly as she was nicked by enemy fire. "BAD ALIENS!"

"Jura to your left!" Meia howled, blasting another three of the strange machines. The onslaught of the robotic creatures, just never seemed to stop. They came from nowhere, and were quickly multiplying with every single one shot down. If one went down, three more would take its place.

"Dita, watch out!" Jura bellowed. Dita had no time to react. The Cube was directly in front of her and priming its weapon for a direct hit on her cockpit. Dita could only close her eyes and wait for death. Next thing she heard was a slicing sound and explosion. She opened her eyes to see the old Vanguard that was stored in the Nirvana.

''Naruto...''

''Hey you, Dita right, you okay?'' Naruto asked, interrupting Dita before she could finish.

"Yes, I'm okay." she whispered.

"Sorry if I was a bit late...the specs on this model are terrible and I can't perform to the level I'm used to. I'll give you girls some cover,'' He said as he pressed a few buttons and started diverting the power source from his shields to his booster and beam rifle. With pin point deadly accuracy he started shooting down four or five at a time. Suddenly the enemies focused from the Dread Pilots were shifted onto him as they started firing at him as one unit. Using judgment and good timing he used the thrusters to avoid the blast.

Back on the ship with the others, they were trying to organize things. "Well looks like you could use some help. Truth of the matter is, I'm a helmsman," Bart said jumping to his feet. "How about we call for a ceasefire and help each other. It would be much smarter to gather our forces and get over this together," he said approaching the captain.

The captain smiled at him, "Interesting, that's not a bad idea.''

''Glad you see it that way how about we shake on it," Bart said holding his hand out only to have the captain smack it away. "I don't wish to get chummy you'll still be treated as one of our prisoners".

"I can't do anything here. Take me to sick bay," Duelo stated as he was led by another one of the female pirates.

"Due to the fusion the bridge was extended out to that platform." Magno informed Bart, as the scheming blond stared out at the circular aqua green platform. He was expecting something more ... familiar not some small pool of mysterious liquid. He felt a shove from Magno and staggered forward before regaining his footing.

"Show us what you can do Helm's man." At the constant prodding from the older woman's words, Bart cautiously walked towards the small platform and looked down into the depths of the bridge. What the hell is up with this ship? "What's the matter? From the look of your hesitation it seems you don't know how to use it." Bart looked back to her and the bridge hands. "It's not that, it's just ... This is a secret project of our military."

He said quickly, trying to cover his hesitation before he ended up back in the cell. While his attention was away, the liquid jumped up from its calm surface, snaring Bart's leg and dragging him in as he screamed and clawed at the edge of the platform for a second before completely pulling him in. Everyone on the bridge looked surprised at the light that shot up before it calmed to a pristine unmoved surface. "...That's some secret weapon. " Magno mumbled.

"It means he has no Idea what he's doing..." Pyoro added.

Within the pool, Bart floated around, lacking his clothes and looking around wildly at the battle around him. Bart took a step back which in turn caused the ship to move and knocking everyone to ground.

Back outside during the battle. Having long since switched to a beam saber Naruto had slashed yet another several cube enemies to pieces. Several beams from swarming machines shout out and obliterating the Vanguards arm. Naruto gritted his teeth as several screens alerted him to the damage of the Vanguard popped up.

''Naruto!"'

Meia spotted Dita who was flying her Dread to Naruto assist him.

"Dita pull back." She ordered the younger pilot. "There is nothing to worry about Meia! Naruto will pull us out of this situation somehow. " She said with confidence in the two.

As Naruto was about to reach the enemy ship, a mass of cube fighters clung to him, working against his thrusters as he tried to reach out to the ship.

"Just...A bit...More..." He groaned, pushing his machine to the limits. The more he forced its limitations the more the machine began to give out. ''Almost there...can't give up...''

"Orange small pillars rushed from the seed ship and towards the Vanguard, piercing through it as Dita rushed in when the he exploded. Meia turned away, knowing now it was a futile effort.

On the Nirvana Mango sighed. ''So a miracle didn't occur after all.''

''All hands abandon...'' B.C. started to order but was stopped as a giant hand break through the pillars that's speared through the Vanguard.

The giant machine broke the pillars that surrounded it to pieces, its armor blazing hot from the explosion. The machine was blue from head to chest and covered in thick armor plating and its forearms had green slots at the wrist, the head unit which was white with a giant horn sticking out from where the forehead would be and on its back were two green crystals sticking out at a point.

The towering giant dashed through and bulldozing its way through the cube fighters, forcing its hands inside the jaws of the ship and pried it open. The crystals on its back slid down then over the shoulders and gave a soft hum as it glowed brightly before firing off twin beams, causing the ship to bulge before exploding as the energy shot straight through.

Magno and B.C. stared at the mystery machine. "Is this another weapon of the men?" B.C. let out a breath, still staring at the blue giant. "Or maybe this is a miracle... "

Naruto looked down at the wreckage do the destroyed enemy ship in triumph. He then looked down to see Dita, passed out in his lap.

''Well this is new...looks like my trip wasn't a complete waste after all.''


	3. The Enemy Approaches

GunDread Kitsune

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Naruto x Harem

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Story Start

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"Our ship has been completely consumed by the crystals." BC began her report. "The bridge, residential quarters, and engine room have been engulfed as well. Fortunately the dread platform and Reg central are undamaged. We are currently cleaning up and installing the new database; the bridge has stopped sliding and is currently situated over the ship's garden. The growth of the peksis seems to have reached its peak all other changes have ceased for now." BC finished her report. "You have report as well, am I correct Meia?"

The Dread leader nodded, "Thank you Commander. The three Dreads that have been transformed by the paeksis are too large for our original platform, so we have modified the men's platform to hold them. I also have discovered that this ship hasn't been used for a long time. All the circuits and cables are decayed and useless." Meia said as BC continued from her.

"The real problem is our current location. It's hard to believe but we're extremely far away from Mejere territory, according to our estimates it will take approximately 270 days to return home."

Mango sighed, "What did we do to deserve to be swept across the galaxy?" Turning to Meia, "And any word about our new enemy?" she asked looking for a bit of good news.

Meia answered, "My team was understaffed, so I sent some volunteers to investigate the site."

Out in space Gascongne and Dita headed toward what remained of the destroyed ship in the supply ship. The Reg leader sighed as Dita talked. "This is going to be a long day!" she said, as all the way there Dita only talked about aliens.

On the bridge, the bridge bunnies were fighting to remain cool against as the rising heat spread throughout the ship. A bridge bunny asked, "What's going with the air conditioning?" Another contacted an engineer team, "Its 82 degrees in here!" she moaned in response.

One of The engineer team replied, "Stop complaining, it's over 86 in here!"

In the men's holding cell, Duelo, Bart and Naruto were being sprayed with cold water. Bart scurried around, while Duelo stood his ground and took it and Naruto seemed to be in his own little world. "So these are the only men left, huh?" the captain asked watching them all.

Her sub-commander answered back with "Yes, we'll have to rely on them until we can fully figure out the ship's systems."

Magno began recalling the memory of Bart being pulled into that strange portal in the bridge in their first battle. "Yes, I've never seen it before. It seemed as if this ship is alive!" she said shuddering.

After their wash the men were back in the brig. Where Bart was once again, telling one of his made-up stories. "It was so unnerving, my comrades were dying left and right, until it became clear that I had to take control of the situation, but now fate has provided me with three allies." Duelo goes with it, while Naruto mind was drifting off to other things.

_'I need to get my hands on Virtue. If Vengeance and Akuryou catch up to us he won't hesitate to obliterate this entire crew.'_ Even after Bart was led away by the sub-commander Naruto had remained silent.

Back with the women who were continuing with the monitoring. "As you can see, the ship looks more like a giant factory then a space ship." Gascogne explained as a camera in her suit began showing what she saw with a smaller screen showing her face. "Wow Ms. Gasco, look at that!" The camera showed Dita taking pictures of the destroyed ship, while taking in the sights of the remains of its interior.

"Have you found anything substantial yet?" Magno asked. "We're looking through the ships Database right now but it's pretty hefty Captain." Suddenly Dita popped up from below Gascogne's sight and in front of her, surprising the Reg leader.

"Hey Ms. Gasco, can I look around?" Gascogne scowled and flicked the girl's forehead part of her helmet.

"Absolutely not! We still have work to do." Dita was pushed back from the light tap.

"Help! I can't stop!"

Magno chuckled at the sight, until she got a communication from Buzam. "Yes B.C.?" The tanned girl's voice sounded through the device. "I brought our helms man." Magno nodded. "Alright, Gascogne I leave this operation to you." With a nod from the Reg division leader they ended the meeting and Magno's chair moved back as a door opened, the seat rotated around as it descended before arriving at her station.

Bart stared at Magno nervously, wondering what need she had of him. "You wanted to see me captain?" She nodded.

"Yes." She pointed towards the platform where the ships control was. "I want to know how you made it work, for some reason it refuses to work for us." He gritted his teeth nervously as he thought of an answer. He thought up a plan and smiled. "Well of course I should, given the situation." He raised his arms, flexing the cuffs which B.C. removed for him.

Rubbing his wrists lightly, he began to walk to the platform. "Now given that this is a man's ship." He turned to face them while walking backwards. "It means only a man can operate it, which is very fortunate for you that I'm here." He said, making sure to ensure that he is in disposable to the pirate crew's survival. While he was in the middle of his explanation he never noticed the pool within the platform reach out and grab his leg. "In fact you could say I was indispensable-Gah!"

With a bright flash he was pulled into the mysterious liquid. Magno sighed, narrowing her eyes at the platform. "I will never understand this system... "

"What do you see Dita?" Gascogne asked the young woman as she looked through a hand held telescope.

_"I don't see the ship, only markers."_ Gascogne frowned in thought. "Well something must have happened. Are work is done none the less, let's go. "When the two began to move towards Dita's Dread, Gascogne spotted something out of the corner of her eye but was too late to react in time.

The Mejerian crew was currently trying to reign in control of the ship with little success as it made its way towards large clouds of gases. "Scanners are picking up a Nebula ahead of us." Amarone Slaintheav said from her terminal while Belvedere coco voiced her worry about the crew being unable to re-take control of the ship. "The problems just keep on stacking up... "Magno commented to herself, a pack of ice on her head when she found her little fan not doing the job.

She looked up as a screen popped up. "The Dread platforms are offline; we're unable to retrieve Dita and Ms Gasco." Meia informed while another screen with Barnette and Jura behind her popped up. "Jura and I have been trapped in the elevator for hours!" Bart yelped as he zoomed in on the Blizzard storm that was the nebula. "Ah stop! How do I turn around? "With yell the ship plunged into the cloud of ice.

Duelo was currently checking up on Ezra, the unconscious bridge hand was panting less and her face less flush then when she arrived. The doctor began using a smaller and more advance instrument reminiscent of a sonic graph, running it over the woman's stomach there was a flash of blue before it suddenly switched to red. Looking up at the small green at the bed side he studied the projection which displayed the woman's organ, but before he could finish the power cut off.

Without even batting an eye his hand lashed out and snatched the communicator from the female to his right, ignoring her glare as he activated the device. "Engineering there's a patient I'm working on and need power to the sick bay." He heard a growl of frustration over the small device.

"I would be glad to, but I'm having a problem here, since I can't read men's language!"

Duelo looked to B.C. out of the corner of his eyes. "I could help you if I was there."

"Go right ahead." responded with a smug smile. Duelo nodded and stood up. He walked down a series of hallways before stepping onto an elevator where it took him to the reactor room. He ignored the cry of alarm from one of the engineers as Parfet turned and called him over.

"I've been trying to study the status of the Paksis, but there's nothing we can do if we can't read the data." Duelo looked over the small navi bot as streams of code ran across its screen like face. "What are you trying to do exactly?" Parfet looked at him, her face showing deep thought.

"I don't know how and I don't have an explanation as to why but the Paksis and this guy's wave length are linked. So I thought he could be used as a sensor but I can understand the display.

"I see..." He walked over and began to type into Pyoro's display. "It appears some impurities are spreading within the main engine room, probably due to the sudden changes." Parfet thought over his words with worry. "From what we learned the system was designed to tap into the crystal and collect energy from its growth, but... "She said, going quiet in thought over the reaction of the sentient crystal when Duelo looked at the pigtailed engineer. "It's possible that it's reacting from the fusion of the two ships." Parfet nodded in agreement. "Do you think you can correct it?"

"I'm sorry but I'm a doctor not an engineer, I know nothing of how a ship works or what it takes to repair it." His specialty was in the biological nature of the human body, well in actuality a man's body. Parfet pouted in slight anger at the Taraakian doctor.

"What excuse is that? Anything that moves is alive, that's what I believe. And isn't it a doctors duty to help all living things right? Duelo looked at her surprised by her words before lazily smiling.

"You have a very interesting perspective."

The ship soon came to a stop as a result of the engines finally dying down and with that the ship came to a stop within the frozen storm of ice known as a nebula. While back within the reactor room, they were studying the data of the ship from Pyoro's display when the machine wobbled before detaching the cables it was attached to and steam rising from between its arm was then that they discovered the ship was eliminating all of its impurities, like a living life form when it had an illness and it's body reacting to fight it off.

Magno was currently trying to get her fan working again since it shut down with the ship suddenly stopping in the nebula, when she looked up as B.C.'s face appeared in a screen." Captain I have a suggestion." When she saw the aged pirate nod she carried on. "Our investigation discovered that the male Vanguard and The P.T. unit should be able to launch. With your permission I would like to send the man out with Folka as supervision to search for Dita and Gascogne." Magno looked on in thought. "That's not a bad idea. By the way, what are you doing in the men's section of the ship?" Magno asked, curious as to why Buzam would be in that section of the ship with little reason to be there.

"I'm just fulfilling my duty as your first mate Captain." She closed the screen and began to walk over to the cell holding to only two men left.

Dita was trying to cut Gascogne free from her prison of strange pillars using the laser but to no avail. Gascogne told her to return to the ship since they're task was complete but Dita refused to leave her behind till the Reg central leader told her she would also be getting help. With a nod the young Dread pilot went to her fighter, when several cube fighters that survived the combined onslaught from the last battle to chase after her while one remained behind.

Naruto had long since been shaken from his thoughts by the ship's earlier violent shaking and began to wonder when it would be his turn to assist. Finally the dark skinned space pirate BC appeared before them again this time disappearing with Duelo. Naruto began contemplating his next move when the woman returned.

''Is it finally my turn?'' Naruto spoke up.

''On the contrary, I came here to ask you for a favor?''

''Favor? Just what are we talking about?''

''I'm going to be honest with you. We left two crew members behind. I like for you to help get them back.''

''I nearly pushed the Vanguard I had to its limits last time I used it. If you want me to play errand boy for you then in the future I need my actual machine. And as I've already explained there is a psychopath out there with a mobile machine that can wipe out colonies.''

''It's not me who decides the course of this ship. You'll have to take it up with the captain, so do we have a deal or not? ''

''I guess I don't have much of a choice.

While the engineers were working to repair the ship, Amarone looked to see something large move across the monitor towards the ship. "Captain a large asteroid shaped ball of ice is on a collision course with the ship." Magno sighed. And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse.

"Hey did you hear that? Do something!" They all had looks of worry on their faces when Bart screamed for help.

Gascogne was observing the few cubes re-activating and giving chase to Dita while she remained trapped within her pillar like prison. "These things can regenerate even under these conditions? " She question in slight astonishment. She snapped out of her thoughts by movement and turned her body as much as she could to see one of the cube fighters moving towards her. "Well, guess I know what you want for dinner." She joked lightly as she stared the machine down in fear.

Dita was avoiding the shots from the cubes chasing her as best as she could but was having little success. "I hate it when Aliens don't know when to stop!" She cried but stopped when she looked down at her radar to see an unknown unit moving towards her. "They're attacking from the front too?" She was knocked forward from a blast, causing her to fire her weapons by accident at whatever was coming at her.

Naruto really hated the clunky and slow movements of the Vanguard. At this rate he was more than likely to fuck up and crash then be killed by the enemy. And of course narrowly avoided twin energy beams was not helping the situation.

''What the hell? That's a fine way to treat the guy who came all the way out here to save you?'' Naruto voiced his apparent annoyance with an audible growl.

Though Dita paid no attention to his evident anger as her eyes brightened and picked up speed towards him."Mr. Naruto you came all this way to save me, THANK YOU!''

''H-Hey Dita slowdown before you...'' Naruto's words were cut off as the dread made contact with the vanguard and they merged.

Parfet, Duelo and everyone in the reactor room were trying to secure as many routes for the Paksis to get energy to travel through. "We've managed to secure thirty-six bypasses, how is everything on your end?" Parfet asked looking at the doctor as he used a sundering iron to melt some wires together in Pyoro's system. "I've done all I can here, we have to make do with what we have." Parfet shook her head as she continued to type in a counsel furiously.

"No, we'll throw off the balance if there aren't enough detours. "Duelo looked back at the engineer leader. "Do you know what doctors due in this kind of situation? " She looked up as he smiled. " We believe in our patients will to live. " She nodded her head.

Up in the bridge the crew members watched in worry as the mass of ice continued to head towards them. "The Paksis is unresponsive, we have no control!" Belvedere shouted as she continued to observe her console of the ships status. "Distance is twelve thousand and closing!" Magno grunted as things looked bleak until her fan came to life and blowing air furiously while Belvedere's console showed the Paksis power was online. "The system's back online!"

In the Reactor room, Pyoro rebooted and stood at attention as wires flew from his exterior form. "I'm back online and ready for duty!" Parfet smiled and put her hand in the Doctor standing next to her. "Are we good or what?" He hmphed but continued to stare at her.

Magno stood from her chair. "Go hard to starboard thirty degrees!" She ordered but Bart was to taken up in his cowardice terror.

"Please lord no!" He squealed and put his arms up in fear but moved his arms down when the ball of ice exploded and saw the Vanguard and Dread Combined machine floating, its shoulder mounted blasters retracting back to their position. "Once again he saves the day... "The blond said in envy as he looked at the blue giant in disinterest.

Naruto sighed, ''This damn machine, I should have never installed the outbreak system.'' he mumbled as a screen popped up showing Gascogne looking at the two. "You okay kid? You looked like you just got mobbed an army of cube.''

''No I'm fine...just not used to...whatever this is.''

"See Ms. Gasco I told you it was amazing!" She said, flashing a big smile as she began to bounce a bit in the seat unknowingly grinding on the boy.

''D-Dita...will you stop that.'' Naruto cried out as certain sensations were awakening.

''Kyaa...w-what's that poking me?'' the red-head cried out which only served to double the blond's embarrassment.

''Well if you...'' suddenly someone came up on the Vandread's radar. ''What the hell? Those speeds...this is nothing a vanguard or dread is capable of let alone of the enemy we've seen so far...shit that could only mean.'' Naruto's eyes widened as that familiar chill came over him. He opened up a feed to the ship. ''CAPTAIN YOU HAVE TO GET THE SHIP MOVING! GET EVERYONE OUT OF HERE NOW! '' Naruto ignored the shouts of the crew members voicing their distaste at a 'man' ordering their captain around, but he ignored it. ''The man I told you about! HE AND THE VENGEANCE ARE COMING!''

(Zoids Chaotic Century - Death Saurer Awakens (Theme) )

Not too far away a black and white machine approached their destination at near mach 1 speed. The machine was a mixture of both heaven and hell in its scheme. Its face was pale and angelic in its facial features with thin arms. Its torso was adorned with black armor and from its back extended three demonic wings from its left side and three angelic wings from its right side which were cradling with several assault machine canon and rifles. It also contained light assault guns installed in its head along with six beam sabers installed along its. At the bottom half of its torso seemed to be a massive containment unit several times the size of the machine that didn't appear to hinder the machine at all. Slowing down the machine came to a stop as the massive containment unit was disengaged from the machine with steam erupting from the container. Out of the container were several smaller containers with weapons and parts.

An ominous white light glow from the machine as its wings extended the machine pulled a beam rifle. It then combined it from the other beam rifles that were disengaged from its wings which were homing in on the target. The wings began to glow as the machine quickly assembled the beam rifles into a large beam rifle. The tip of the barrel began to glow a bluish-white as the weapon prepared to fire.

Meanwhile back on Nirvana the crew was preparing for impact. ''Captain the energy readings from that unidentified machine are off the charts. If we take a direct hit from that thing the Nirvana will be destroyed.'' Amarone said.

''Reroute all spare power to the shields and brace for impact!'' Manga ordered.

The vengeance fired its beam as it narrowly clipped Vandread as it impacted against the Nirvana. The beam collided and ripped through the barriers and shredded the top side portion of the Nirvana causing superficial damage.

''Damage report!''

''The shields are gone!'' One of the bridge bunnies stated.

''Nirvana has taken some heavy damage! Another hit like that and we're done for.''

Back outside of the Nirvana the Vengeance had set his sight on the Vandread. The machine shifted into its alternate battle mode as it drew out two beam sabers from its side. ''Oh no the Nirvana is in trouble!'' Dita cried out as she craned her head to look at it, her fear for her friends and crew mates making her make the foolish mistake of taking her eyes off the enemy.

''DITA! FOCUS!'' Naruto shouted as Vengeance popped up in front of them. Jerking the controls back they were just able to avoid the first downward slash of beam saber only for the Vengeance's superior speed to catch them off guard and slash off the Vandread's right arm.

Dita let out a scream as Naruto snarled and attempted to use the Vandread's powerful long range energy cannon after getting some distance, but it was interrupted as the Vengeance threw his two sabers, one impaling the Vandread's right leg and the other one of its cannons.

**''Looks like our rivalry ends here!''**

Vengeance once more charged forward and was about to charge when a lance appeared out of nowhere and pierced the war-machine's torso. The pilot of the war machine let out a snarl as violet lightning crackled from his controls. '**'This weapon...and from this distance, but I destroyed that machine years ago!**'' The vengeance ripped the lance from the torso as lightning continued to crackle from the machine. '**'You get to live today, but next time you won't be so lucky.**'' And with that the Vengeance took off in the opposite direction.

_''That weapon...could she still be...'_' Naruto wondered to himself. Sometime later Naruto and Dita were picked up by the Nirvana. Lost in his thoughts Naruto was still in the hangar bay as he looked at the heavily damaged Vanguard. 'This thing is done for...it's only good for parts now. ' Dita's ship could easily be prepared because the pirate crew had back-up parts for their dreads so unless he got his hands on his Gundam he would be permanently grounded.

'Hopefully now with this incident the Captain will listen to my request and there won't be any objections from her crew!''


	4. Tensions Rise

Gundread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

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Story Start

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In the women's restroom, Belvedere and another woman with deep forest green hair were discussing rumors about men. Dita being present at the time eavesdropped on the discussion. ''Hey did you hear? I heard men have some sort of funky tube between their legs. ''

''No way!'' the other woman exclaimed. ''Are you sure it's not an antennae?'' she went thoughtful for a minute. ''I wonder if it makes it hard to walk.''

''Gross!''

''It must feel weird!'' they continued to chatter.

Meanwhile in the designated men's part of the ship (which was ridiculous small) Naruto was exiting the shower after a nice hot shower. He exited the bathing stall only to come face to face with Dita. He paused, blinked, wondering if he was hallucinating for a moment as Dita stated up at him, her eyes full of curiosity as she smiled. ''Uum, what are you doing Dita-chan?''

''I want to see your antennae Mr. A...I mean Naruto.''

''My what?'' Naruto exclaimed, his face heating up. He sighed, was he never going to get used to stuff like his.

''I heard a rumor of men having something between there legs and was curious, so I thought you would show me if it was true."

''That's rather personal,'' he said, trying not to dive into any perverted fantasies. ''Maybe later, once you understand a bit more about the nature of men and women.'' he explained as she gave him a quizzical look. ''Now if you mind,'' he pushed her out of the room. ''I'm trying to get dressed.''_ A very naive and cute girl wants to see my penis and I turn her down. Kami if this ever gets back to K or Kiba I'd never hear the end of it. _he grumbled.

Parfet and Pyoro where going about the ship, collecting possible names for the ship and offering up a prize of one year of food certificates of some restaurant back on Mejere.

_''...will get one year's worth of food certificates at the Trapeza!''_ for the most part Naruto was ignoring what was being said until he caught the tail end of the statement over the megaphone. _ 'Hhm, that requires immediate investigating.'_ he thought as he finished putting on his pants.

Jura and Barnette passing by heard this. ''A year's worth?'' the buxom blond curiously asked.

''What's this? Nirvana?'' Barnette read one of the suggestion. ''Isn't that corny?'' she asked as Parfet leaned in and answered.

''The vice-captain came up with that name.''

''How do we name the ship?'' Barnette pressed on, becoming curious.

''You just enter it into Pyoro!''

With that explained Jura entered the name Luxury night for the ship.

While in the med bay, Duelo was examining Ezra finding it interesting to study the difference between a man and a women while finding out about the difference in culture. He found that there difference in creating life was different but none the less interesting. Curious if the process of planting the egg of an Ohma, and splicing the seeds of a ferma could be done on him as well with Ezra explained anyone could do be a ferma.

B.C. was in the men's side of the ship, placing data within a pod that was in a launcher two with a second pod next to it. She was getting the pods ready for launch when a screen showing Magno popped up.

"Is everything ready Buzam?"

"Yes Captain, all the data we have complied about the aliens and 'Harvest' operation is here and ready to be sent out."

Magno then commented about something she was quick to notice while the silver haired woman was in the bridge.

"How come you are sending out two pods BC?"

Buzam turned to the other pod and replied.

"The other one is for the men of Talark, they might not listen to us because we're women, but we have to tell them either way since they are also going to be attacked as well by the Aliens like our people are."

"True, they do deserve to know, all right, the sooner we get the message out, then all the better for everyone here on the ship."

"Roger."

Buzam pressed the switch and both pods were taken into the Launch tubes and were soon sent out from the Nirvana and on their way to their destinations as their engines kicked in. However, to the shock of Buzam and Magno, it was not long before the aliens appeared on the scene. The pods were quickly destroyed and that was enough to sound the general alarm all over the ship as the Nirvana as four alien fighters were now on the scene and attacking the Nirvana.

Meanwhile down in the hanger Naruto was working on preparing the Vanguard. ''Damn machine,'' he grumbled, finally fixing the hydraulics. The left arm was only at 70 percent proficiency not to mention any hopes of creating a shield system was impossible. The sound of the alarm broke him out of his thoughts.

The dread pilots began rushing into the hanger to board their ship. '_I can't let these pilots go off and fight on their own. There is no telling what the enemy will be capable of.''_ looking back to the machine and its current shape. '_But if I take too much damage the Vanguard will become virtually unusable.' _Deciding to take his chances Naruto joined the others out there.

For the most part everything was okay. He hacked the nearest cube fighters in half with no problem while dodging fire from several others.  
He opened the sheathe behind him and pulled out three small dagger like swords and tossed them at one of the cube fighters, each one piercing it and watched as it exploded. He turned and saw one charging at him from behind and dashed to the side, pulling a sharp turn and cleaving the assaulting machine and continuing past it.

The other two surrounded and circled the Vanguard. Naruto pulled out a second sword as the two charged and turned horizontal while using his verinier thrusters on his right and left shoulders to activate in opposite directions causing him to spin and slash the two and dashed away before they exploded. _'Keep cool. Do not make any unnecessary movements._' he couldn't help but feel something was going on. This force was far too small to be any sort of threat. ''I'm going on ahead to scout the area.'' he said as Meia's image appeared on the monitor.

''Negative...you haven't been given any order to do such a thing.''

Naruto snorted, ''Sorry, last I recall I wasn't one of your pilots. Besides, it won't take me that long.'' he said as he cut the feed. Satisfied that he couldn't find any signs of vengeance or the enemy Naruto returned to the ship.

It didn't take a genius to figure that once he stepped off the ship he was going to be faced with an angry Meia.''So what death to men speech am I going to hear now?''

A scowl appeared on her face. ''You really are a conceited ass-hole aren't you?''

''And what the hell are you going on about?''

"You continued on out there without authorization!"

Naruto looked at Meia and wondered just why his presence seemed to piss her off so much. ''Didn't know I have to sign a piece of paper to scout and blow shit up.'' he cheekily remarked.

"Stop treating this as a game. Lets get one thing straight Uzumaki. We don't need your help. We've gotten by without the assistance of men and we will continue to do so.''

Naruto's face darkened, turning sour. He paid little attention to the fact that Dita had shown up and looked torn at the situation. ''Naruto...Meia...please don't fight. We're on the same side remember.'' she pleaded.

''And you call me hatred. Are you so blind that you'll throw away any assistance based on something as stupid as gender bias?'' he sneered. He had a gift at pushing people's buttons. ''You may not like me, that's fine, but if we're going to be on the same side then I'll be damned if I'll deal with disrespect. So I'll offer you a deal. One on one, hand to hand combat without any tricks or weapons. If you win I'll do anything and I mean anything you say. If I win, you stop riding my ass.''

''Deal,'' Meia agreed, eager to put the blond in his place. Word was soon spreading all around the ship and nearly everyone on the ship had tuned in through one of the video feeds or in person to see this fight. Chattering filled the benches as the crew was eager to see Meia to put the man 'in his place' so to speak.

''That man is such a fool. Challenging Meia to hand to hand combat. Maybe once he's put in his place he won't strut around like a fool.'' Barnette stated as Jura looked contemplative about the whole situation.

''I don't know Barnette, is it really going to be that cut and try?'' Jura asked as she watched the blond who stand there motionless, tuning out the sound of the jeers.

''You can't really believe he stands a chance?'' Barnette asked her partner in disbelief.

''He's confident, not in a cocky sort of matter but comfortable in his own skin. I'm just saying we shouldn't be so sure.'' she answered as the fight finally began.

Meia went first, moving on the offensive and struck at the blond with a powerful jab aimed at his temple. Naruto dropped back, catching himself as he twisted around and glided backwards. ''As expected, since the people in this particular _area_ are pilots you're not too skilled in many refined hand to hand arts.'' she didn't say anything, following up with several sharp strikes that almost reached his face but narrowly missed.

''Go Meia!''

''Kick that man's ass!''

''Show him why you don't mess with women!''

''Go Uzumaki! Show them how men do it!'' Bart cheered, as he and Duo made up the very small cheering section on the side from a rickety make shift bench. The only exception was Dita, who was between the two sections and looked distressed, unsure who to cheer for.

''Stop...running.'' she grunted as she paused and swung her leg into his side. He merely flinched and chuckled it off.

''Good...not good enough.'' he said as he disappeared from her sight.

''I knew a man's word couldn't be trusted. We promised no tricks!'' she called out to him only to hear Naruto's voice behind her.

''No tricks,'' he impishly began, his hand reaching out and cupping her rather pert back side. ''Just pure speed and very nice. Baby Got Back.'' following Naruto's comment he roar that escaped Meia's mouth was so furious even Naruto found himself stunned for a moment. ''Sorry! Sorry! Sooorrry!'' he cried out as punch after punch, kick after kick laid into his body. Now he could have easily avoided her blows, but he knew he deserved those hits for groping her. After her anger finally subsided, a long twenty minutes later Naruto finally decided to end the fight. It happened so fast that everyone was left stun. It went from Meia being Naruto mercilessly to the Meia on her back with Naruto's knee nestled into the back of her neck, effectively pinning her. Meia had a lot of work ahead of her, along with potential, but she had issues to work through. That much Naruto was certain.

''I never just give respect to anyone. Black or white, male or female; human or otherwise if you want my respect you have to earn it. I don't hate you, as far as I'm concerned both men and women have their strengths or weaknesses but it doesn't mean we aren't equals. I don't want to be your enemy, I would like for us to be allies and friends someday. I hope you can come to accept that.'' Naruto was hoping that the spar and talk no jutsu combination was enough to get through Meia's skull. Though he was going to be prepared for her to lash out at him if the talk no jutsu failed.

He was of course boo and cheered until the tap of the captain's cane silenced them. ''Mr. Uzumaki, there is something you and I need to discuss.'' and with that, something was telling Naruto that things were going to get weird.


	5. The Last Vandread

Gundread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

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Story Start

000000

Assigning him to the Reg unit was without a doubt something that was supposed to teach him a lesson. What they did not count on was Naruto's awesome henge ability. All and all it was an interesting experience, and as he started to work his befriend just about anyone magic he learned something new about the all women pirates.

''So that's Mejale?'' Naruto asked in interest as a holographic image flickered to life. ''Looks kind of Gaudy.'' As the images continued to play, Gascogne began explaining.

"Indeed, gaudy, beautiful, and clean. But I hated the fact that it was all so superficial. Mejale is a country where everyone is friendly and have a good time. But that's just on the outside. Women have a sense of showing off, and they want their gardens to look better than their neighbor's. They kept using excessive energy because of that, and as a result, one of the units had to be shut down.

Naruto nodded as he saw an image of a housing complex become dark. Gascogne continued explaining.

"Our captain, with no place to go, created this pirate fleet for us. There is no ''men or women'' for pirates. Your lives were spared. If this was the real Mejale army, you would've been dead before you could bark a single word.''

Naruto remained silent, this sort of speech he heard all too often. ''This sort of thing, I've seen before. The wastefulness of human beings. I think I understand the motivation of you women from Mejale a bit more, but I have my own reasons behind my decisions and actions. It has nothing to do with me being a man, nor is it to slight any of you for being women. I have to do what it takes to protect all those precious to me. No matter their gender.''

Though much time hadn't passed when the enemy started attacking again. This time they were packing a new type of mysterious ship.

The nimble pirate ships darted about, blowing a few of the Cube-Types to pieces while trying to engage the main machine. However, the strange craft was impossibly fast for its size and evaded the first wave. Then the globes on its surface began to rotate and extended large purple tendrils, making its appearance seem like a ...

"Sea urchin?" Jura commented as she put her Dread in a strafing run against it. ''Wait, are we going to fight that thing?

''Calm down, Jura. Team leaders, check your formations.'' Meia ordered. ''All teams, commence attack!''

"No good, Meia. Those needles get in the way.'' Jura replied as her, and Barnette's missiles were easily deflected and exploded harmlessly away from the main body.

_"Leader, let's get Naruto out here!"_ Dita called in through her communicator.

"NO! He's a man! An enemy! Have you forgotten?'' Meia stubbornly replied.

_''But he's a good alien!''_ Dita argued.

''I told you not to rely on the strength of others! We'll do this...ON OUR OWN!'' Meia's pride refused to allow her to rely on help from Naruto and fired more of missiles that harmlessly exploded near the enemy, once more being deflected by its defensive counter measures.

Back on the ship. ''They're fighting a losing battle. Damn that stubborn woman.'' Naruto growled as he punched his fist into the wall.

'50 type B homing missiles!'

'15 close-range!'

'750 slime bullets!'

One by one the suppliers listed off the deli orders.

''They keep trying the same thing over and over again. They're not going to beat that thing at this rated.'' Naruto noted. _'Then again with the shit condition my vanguard...we were so close. So close to where my partner is. Damnit! If I fight now the Vanguard is toast. It's already taken too much damage, its been worn out by system enhancements, but the Nirvana is as good as dead if that thing isn't destroyed.'_ making his choice Naruto ran from the Reg to his next destination.

''The enemy has adapted to our battle tactics.'' BC remarked with a frown. The bridge had been watching the battle and trying to come up with a means to counter attack. ''At this rate we won't last much longer.'' the spiked cube was nimble, using its spines to disable the Dreads, keeping them busy long enough to let a few cubes slip by the Dread defensive and attack the Nirvana.

Magno nodded. "It appears the last few battles were nothing more than ploys to assess our strengths and weaknesses. At this rate...'' she trailed off ominously.

Naruto came to a stop in front of his Vanguard.

''You really are stubborn.'' a voice spoke from behind him.

''Gascogne-san. You're not going to try and stop me aren't you?'' he asked as she snorted.

''No, as interesting as it was to have you around in the Reg., I think we both know out there on the field is a more fitting way for you to earn your keep. You ready to see the real work of a stagehand.''

The Dreki, Gascongne's supply ship, detached from the main vessel and flew toward the battle zone. It resembled a large ladybug and was heavily armored and had several grappling arms located on its undersides. As four Dreads flew toward it, the arms extended themselves and grabbed hold of them, bringing them closer so that new armaments could be loaded onto the fighters.

On the main bridge of the Dreki, Gascogne sat with Naruto and watched the procedures.

"Okay, I'm gonna do this at once! fifty seconds!''

Naruto nodded as he worked at his console and systematically loaded each Dread with new missiles and weaponry.

"Deli complete! Get out there, girls!" Gascogne said as they launched. ''I hope you have some sort of plan.''

''We'll see how it goes,'' Naruto answered with a smirk. Boarding the Vanguard he jumped out into the frame. _'One last time Vanguard. That's all I'm asking is one last time. This time we give it our all. FULL POWER!'_

Meanwhile on the battle field. _  
''I can't lose...not here...I won't...I won't depend on a man. I can't lose...in a place like this!''_Meia thought as the enemy ship spines impacted her weapon again and sent her flying. The left wing chipped off and her ship heavily damaged. The enemy weapon was closing in on her.

_''Leader!''_

''Meia watch out!''

(His name is Captain-Ost. From Superior Gundam Force)

"What is that?" Jura gasped as she saw something new enter the fray.

"It looks like a Vanguard." Dita remarked.

In her own Dread, Meia gritted her teeth. _No! It can't be him!_

The Vanguard shot past as its blade met with the spikes and stopped it from shredding Meia's Dread to pieces.

_'Danger! Danger!' _blared to life on Naruto's screen. Spikes were launched out from the enemy ship and pierced Naruto's limbs, sending him flying back. ''I'm not done yet.'' Naruto stubbornly argued, doing a diagnostic on his machine. ''47%. More than enough.'' he said as he activated his boosters just Dita's fighter flashed onto the scene.

"Naruto! Let's combine!"

The gigantic sea urchin had other ideas though as it launched another barrage. Meia's Dread flew in to intercept.

"Dita, watch out!"

Meia's Dread took the hits and was sent speeding out of control.

''Hang on,'' Naruto called out as he sped out to catch her only to be nailed by mor eof the creatures weapons causing him to lose control of his machine.

''No...''

''I can't...''

''I won't...''

Both individuals thoughts became one just as their machines were about to impact, overcome by the same desire. ''I WON'T LOSE TO THE LIKES OF YOU!''

It was then that they both came together and became a new force. Meia's Dread immediately swallowed up the vanguard and began shifting its form. The entire craft flipped itself over and extended twin appendages that resembled the talons of a predatory bird. The front part of the fuselage extended itself even further, forming a serpentine head with tusks. The new mecha hovered in space, ready for combat.

"Huh?" Dita was shocked.

"No way!" Barnette exclaimed.

''SO cool!" Jura declared as she saw that Meia's fighter was now some kind of Dragon-type mecha.

On the pirate vessel, the bridge crew was also in awe.

"He sure has a lot of tricks up his sleeve..." Bart said.

Inside the cockpit of the new fighter. "What the hell are you doing here? I don't need your help!" Meia glared at Naruto as she found herself in a very undignified position. The cockpit of the new Vandread had her sitting in a kind of a reclining position, with him practically on top of her, to which she was trying to rectify by pushing him away.

''Damnit woman, will you settle down for one moment? Have you forgotten tha...'' At that moment that the Gundread shuddered as it was hit by the enemy craft.

''Damnit, not what I had in mind, but no use letting this opportunity go to waste.'' he remarked as he turned around and grabbed at a set of controls in front of him. The Vandread came alive with his touch as he glared over his shoulders to his unexpected co-pilot.

"We don't have time for your bias against me. Either we work together or die. You're choice.''

Meia gritted her teeth, but nodded in agreement as she began operating the foot pedals and the controls on either side of her chair.

The Gundread started darting about after the enemy with an acceleration that was nearly impossible to follow with scanners.

''What's with that acceleration?'' Barnette declared.

"I envy Meia...lucky!" Jura said as she watched the machine wistfully.

The new Vandread combination moved at speeds the enemy couldn't follow. Even the new enemy ships spines were only able to pierce the after images the machine left.

However, the machine totally missed its target as it flashed out of sight and reappeared behind it.

Inside the cockpit of the Vandread, both Naruto and Meia voiced out their anticipation.

"There, the brief moment when the enemy is vulnerable...'' Naruto said.

"... just what I was waiting for!" Meia declared.

The entire craft became surrounded with power as it flashed forward like a comet.

The enemy craft was pierced though its center as the Vandread rammed clear through it. A moment later, it exploded into fragments and smaller spheres were scattered all. The battle was over.

Inside the now dormant Vandread, Meia was completely exhausted while Naruto was slightly winded.

"Whew! That was... a total mess." Naruto said as he leaned against the console.

"To think that we'd be thinking the same thing." Meia commented.

''It's not my attention, to be your enemy.'' Naruto began. ''I'm not from Talrak. I don't have their beliefs. I am not an enemy of women. Neither Vanguard nor Dread alone can beat an enemy like this. Can you see now why we're better off as allies instead of enemies?''

Meia didn't answer, since Naruto did raise a point.

"This is terrible!" Dita pouted as she and the rest of the Dread Teams headed back to their ship. "Naruto was supposed to combine with me!"

In her own fighter, Jura began to consider a few things. "I see. That means that I might be able to become elegant and awesome, too. I look forward to it.''

Despite the tensions easing Naruto found himself enjoying working at Reg Central during his off time. And not for the reason that for the first time in a long time he found someone that his devil's luck in gambling could not win.

''Royal flush."

Looking down between the cars, up at Gascogne's grinning face and back at the cards again Naruto threw his hands up in disbelief. Rambling along the lines of black magic and other accusations. ''I'm done for today.'' he sighed after his eighth straight loss.

''What's wrong? I thought you had a never give up attitude?'' she asked, playfully picking at his pride.

''I do, its balanced out by logic and common sense. Both which say I'll end up broke if I continue playing your games.'' he replied with a chuckle before the Captain's voice intercom summoned him to the bridge. _'It looks like we finally arrived. Its only a matter of time now partner.'_


	6. Birth of the Gundread

Gundread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

00000000

Story Start

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''This is it.'' Naruto spoke as the image of the colony where he stashed Virtue came into sight. A rush of anticipation washed over him as images of the run down colony came into site.

Meia, Barnette, Jura and the Bridge Bunnies, along with Magno, as usual, were all on the bridge, watching as the colony come into view. Though some of them wouldn't admit (Meia), they had all gathered because Naruto was there. Others were eager to learn more about this powerful machine Naruto had stashed away.

''There should be plenty of supplies left over. I made an emergency stash for situations such as this. We'll need a team; I'll highlight the hangers on the maps which you should go and routes you should take. I made sure to heavily booby trap many routes if for whatever reason I was forced to reveal this location against my will or someone stumbled upon it.

"Meia, I want you to lead one of the teams with Naruto. Since he knows this place better than anyone we will listen to his advice to avoid any unneeded causalities, so that means you'll be listening to any and all orders. Understand?" Meia nodded, not daring to defy her Captain's orders up front. "Barnette, you'll be in charge of the second team."

''Don't worry; time won't be wasted with the usual protocols. I've already rigged the place with explosives set to detonate under a time limit after I removed virtue; more than enough time will passed between getting the supplies and us leaving without fear of being caught in the explosion.''

The teams had gathered in the hanger and they were given their orders. The main team consisting of Naruto, Meia, Jura, and Dita would be heading where Virtue and most of the secondary supplies would be. Things like documents, stored food or other such things that weren't top priority while the second team would be hitting up the armory and medical bay.

''At least the lights still work.'' Naruto said in relief as he switched a switch.

''Hey Naruto, how come your all alone? Aren't there others like you?'' Dita asked as Naruto chuckled.

''There are,'' he began, ''...but they're off doing their own things. If we're lucky we might run into them.''

"So, where's this armory we're heading to pilot Uzumaki." Meia asked, walking up beside Naruto. Naruto looked down at her, as if he was awestruck by something. ''What?''

''Sorry, I'm not used to referring to me as anything but man and the enemy of women yet.'' he remarked quite playfully as a glare formed on her face. Naruto shivered from the coldness. ''Not too far from here.'' he squeaked, pointing ahead. He suppose it was smart not to piss her off, lest hostilities be renewed.

The group continued through more sliding doors until they came to a large corridor. They came to a keypad. He typed in the password 'Yaoi fangirls are freaks' and the doors opened and came across another similar door and set up. 'Fanboys ruin everything.' and they came across another room. It was a rather large and empty room stained with blood and large grooves and scratch marks.

''What in Mejare.'' Meia whispered.

"This place gives me the creeps." Jura added. ''What happened?''

''An attack,'' Naruto answered. '' Not really something we should spend too much time reflecting on.'' Naruto added before they could ask what happened to the bodies. They came to an intersection to which Naruto pointed left. ''Down there are the supplies; you three go ahead and began recovering them.'' he said, directing his team. ''The rest of you head right and right again and that's the room you'll need to head to.''

''What about you Naruto?'' Dita asked.

''I'm going to recover my partner. I'll be in here.'' Naruto remarked as he began to put in his passwords. ''Give it a few minutes.'' he said putting in password after password as he undid the security measures. ''If you all finish before I do go ahead and return with the shuttles, I'll be returning by flying in Virtue.'' he said as he sat down the box of parts from his left hand. He had brought a few of the Vanguard parts in case he needed them.

"The two shuttles have returned to the Nirvana." Celtic Midori informed everyone. "It appears that everyone, but the ma-Naruto,'' she corrected herself. ''...have returned.''

''Signals are being detected.'' Amarone said as an image flicker to life as dozens of dots soon filled the screen. ''The enemy.''

''Damn,'' BC growled. ''They're a persistent bunch. Bart, as soon as things get stable, we need to leave this place. We need to start moving away from the colony as soon as possible. We'll just have to hope the pilot can catch up to us in his new machine.''

The Dreads were soon deployed as they went set up a defensive. ''Three? We were able to barely able to survive one of those things.'' Jura cried out as the enemy offensive of cubes were being followed by three Sea-Urchins.''

''We don't have much of a choice!'' Meia barked out. ''Let's just hope that pilot's machine is as good as he says.'' though as she finished this a massive beam of energy fired in between the Dreads and the enemy completely evaporating the cubes. The pilots covered their eyes and pulled back as something was approaching faster than their scanners could accurately track.

_''Another signal is being detected. Watch out!''_ Celtic's voice blared over the comm-link.

_''Oh no? Is it another bad alien?_'' Dita asked as her image appeared on Meia's screen.

''Hold steady, watch and wait.'' Meia ordered as the black machine came into sight. ''Wait a minute...that's...'' an image came to her mind. That was the same machine that nearly destroyed the Nirvana in one attack, though it appearance seemed to be altered quite a bit. ''Fallback! I repeat fallback!'' she ordered as the black machine took out a beam sabre.

(RockMan ZX Advent Tunes - Soul Ablaze-0:00 to 0:40 )

A red aura radiated from the machine as the Sea-Urchin's turned their focus to the black machine, sensing it was the bigger threat. The Sea Urchins fired their spikes at the machine only for it to blur out of existence. A moment later it appeared behind one of the Sea Urchin's which separated in two from the machine's attack and exploded. The machine then shot forward at another Sea-Urchin, avoiding its spikes as it gripped the sabre in two hands and drove it into the core of machine. Spinning around several times it flung the Sea Urchin off towards the other one before using its twin beam Gatling guns to blast the machines to pieces.

''Its...'' Jura began, being rendered speechless.

''...so powerful.'' Barnette finished.

Suddenly the black machine turned its attention towards them and began jetting forward at high speeds. It fired from its twin missile launchers forcing the Dreads to continue on the defensive. One of the missiles exploded near Dita Caucasus her to lose control. ''Waah! Why does this alien keep picking on us?''

Several Dread pilots fired their missiles only for the black machine to disappear from their scanners. It appeared behind one of the Dread ships.

_''Cinnamon! Look out!''_ one of the other pilots screamed but it was too late. The machine fired upon the ship at close ranged ending the life of one of the Mejare pilots.

The whole thing was surreal. They had always been so careful and planned ahead and by sheer luck, not a single one of the crew had been lost. There had been injuries and close calls, but not once had they lost someone until now.

_''Bassstarrrrd! You'll pay for that!'_' another pilot screamed in outrage. So consumed with grief she ignored Meia's order as the only thing on her mind was getting revenge for her lover. Her ship was cleaved in two by the black machine's beam saber. The Dreads did their best to fight back, giving Nirvana ample time to distance itself from the machine of death but it was as if the machine wasn't fazed by anything.

''Retreat now! I'll hold it off!'' Meia ordered as she used the speed of her Dread to move to the other side of the black machine and fired, drawing its attention away from the other Dreads. ''I won't...I won't stand by and be helpless! I won't stand by and watch my comrades die!''

_''Leader! Are you insane! That monster will tear you apart!''_ Barnette argued.

''That is an order pilot!'' Meia harshly replied, causing Barnette to recoil in shock.

_''She's right!''_ Jura's image popped up. _''Don't sacrifice yourself so senselessly. Let us help.''_

''No! Do as I say!'' Meia replied, just as stubborn as ever as Meia continued to fire upon the machine. Instead of being ruthless like earlier it seemed intent on toying with her. It wasn't like anyone would miss her. The people of Mejare made it clear when she was young and living on the streets. Despite her objections several of the pilots fired on the machine. ''What are you all doing? Do you all want to die?' _Why? Why are they risking their lives for me?_

Suddenly the machine launched missiles from its launchers as it homed in on each of the nearby Dreads. ''Me! FOCUS ON ME!'' the black machine ignored her as it focused in one the colony where Naruto was at.

(Zoids Death Saurer Soundtrack 0:00 to 0:35)

The ominous glow radiated from the machine as its outer-shell exploded revealing its previous black and white shell. The wings of the machine extended as power began radiated it from it again. The white glow began radiating from the machine as its chest cavity opened up. A yellowish-white energy began to radiate as the charged particles accelerated.

''This is terrible.'' Amarone began as she did a reading on the power output of the machine. ''The energy readings from that black and white machine are at least three times as powerful as last time. If that thing hits then that pilot is done for.''

Meia emptied her entire arsenal at the machine in hopes of slowing it down or damage it. An explosion occurred and for a brief moment hope coursed through her only for the smoke to clear and reveal a purple barrier of shorts, having been generated from the wings of the machine.

The vengeance fired the Charged Particle Canon directly at the station. The beam pierced through the outer shell of the colony and continued right through. Moments later an explosion occurred as the station was completely consumed.

"The colony has exploded." Celtic announced sadly. She, along with everyone on the bridge, and those watching the video feed of the colony, were either shocked in silence or in tears as no signs of life appeared. There was no escape pod to be seen on screen. Not a ship or anything shown up on the radar. While it was true a good deal of them weren't ready to call a Naruto a friend, gender barriers and all the hostilities between men and women were evaporating. At the very least he was an ally.

"No Naruto!'' Dita wailed over the link. ''No...no...no. Naruto!'' tears covering her cheeks as despair overtook her. Several of her allies dying had already left her shocked, but this was the one that pushed open the flood gates.

Meia was shocked into silence. This wasn't supposed to happen. That idiot was supposed to come out of nowhere and save the day, with that stupid grin of his. He wasn't supposed to die. Not him. She was trembling, but not of fear but something else.

_''Dita get out of there!''_

_''Move!''_

Meia looked up; the machine was heading right towards Dita. ''No. Not anyone else. You hear me you bastard. NOT ANYONE ELSE!'' She pushed Gibson as far as she could but she wasn't going to make it.

Dita could only look up, frozen in fear as the machine threatened to cut down her machine down in through. ''I'm sorry Naruto. I guess I'll be seeing you soon.' Though, the sound of something clashing caught her eye.

(Tales of Symphonia - Fighting of the Spirit - With Mega Man X Instruments)

There was another machine in front of her, blocking the evil machine's beam saber with its own. It was slightly smaller than the other machine, its color scheme white and orange as its wings hung in a downward direction. Where the other machine looked like a demon of sorts, a tortured creation trapped between Heaven and Hell the other one was by far more human not to mention it had a rather large backpack shaped device on its back covered by said wings. ''You're the same as you always been. I shouldn't be surprised, and because of that reason I'm going to make erase your very existence so you will never get the chance to harm another life!"

Dita was shocked into silence, she recognized that voice but found herself unable to speak, overcome with emotion.

''Sorry I'm late.'' Naruto's image appeared on the screen. ''The hero always arrives at the last second. The rest of you get out of here. He's mine.''

''Last time we fought you barely survived. Do you think now will be any different?" Vengeance's pilot finally spoke.

''Just shut up and die!'' Naruto roared as he pushed the machine back. Taking out the beam rifles that were affixed to his wings, Naruto began firing as Vengeance began phasing from left and right avoiding the blasts. Using his thrusters he moved back, putting distance between them as he continued to fire. Vengeance's speed proved greater than expected as it used its own beam saber to chop off the barrels of the gun.

Dropping the rifles, Naruto once more pulled out his blade and slashed at the machine, lopping off one of its shoulder launchers. He then shot up as Vengeance began firing missiles at him, to which he prematurely detonated with his vulcan canon. He followed up with 90mm machine gun but Vengeance's speed once more made it a hard target to hit.

Its beam saber clipped the side of Virtue causing to Naruto to grunt in pain as an electrical discharge radiated from the machine. ''Time for option V.''

**''I don't think so!''** Vengeance pulled out another Beam Sabre and using its double cutter attack sliced the Virtue's backpack into four pieces to which Naruto quickly removed. The double sided beam lance which doubled as beam canons were destroyed as a result of the explosion. ''**You won't escape.''** he charged right through the explosion, taking damage to his own machine as the beam saber pierced right through Virtue's left arm, nearly hitting the chest cavity. He then began firing at close range slowly chipping away at Virtue's head and chest armor.

Naruto in response threw a punch, causing Vengeance to fly back. He panted heavily as electrical sparks coursed through the Gundam.

'**'It's over!'**' two body cavities in the Vengeance opened as it fired long, retractable cables like grappling hooks to grab and restrain Virtue. Naruto turned up his thrusters to full power to pull away as Vengeance began pulling him into the line of fire. The grappling claws delivered a powerful electrical shock in an attempt to fry Naruto's systems. The Vengeance once more began to charge up for a Charged Particle Beam. Naruto's eyes widened as he recalled this tactic. This was the very same double suicide tactic from before, but this time he didn't have any fellow Gundam pilots to back him up at the last minute. '**'I have lived to see your death, the one that escaped me. Now perish, as your anguished cries fill my ears.''**

The other Dreads had been picked up, the damages they sustained left them unable to do much else but fly. The only one with functioning battle capabilities was Meia's Gibson. Ignoring the shouts of the others Meia sped off towards the battle.''Uzumaki. Combine with me.'' Meia order the link.

''What! Meia are you insane? Get out of here before...'' she cut him off.

''Listen you idiot. As much as I hate to admit it, you're the only one that stands a chance against that monster. You can't die, not here; so we need to make him pay. For all the lives that he had taken. So one more time, we need that power.''

**''I don't know what you fools are talking about, but I'll waste you both.''** the weapon was almost ready to fire.

_''That power...'_' Naruto thought.

_''...the one that destroyed those Sea-Urchins.''_ Meia thought.

_''I need that power. We need that power.''_ both machines glowed. ''ONE LAST TIME!'' the force of the merger caused Vengeance's ropes to snap.

**''Shit! How...how does he, how does he do it every time?'**' the dark pilot demanded in outraged as he fired the canon. The canon pierced through the line only to meet met with nothing. Something passed by the Vengeance with blinding speed as the machine's left arm exploded. ''What!''

That was when the machine came into view. The machine wings were spread out on its back like a bird as a new silver sheen coated what was once white and orange. The machine shot forward once again as an energy blade materialized from its hand as it impacted with the barrier that Vengeance was just able to erect in time. Dropping the barrier Vengeance launched some missiles to which the unnamed machine easily dodged.

''**That power,''** the pilot cackle.** ''I want to fight it. To kill it or be killed by it.''** the vengeance promptly glowed a bright purple before it disappeared in a flash.

''Teleportation? I didn't think a murder seeking cretin such as himself would have such a thing.'' Meia stated with distaste.

''He doesn't. Any battle he's in he's usually forced away by someone else when things aren't in his favor.'' Naruto informed her as nasty scowl formed on his face. ''Meaning he's not alone. Come on, let's return to the Nirvana.''

(Songs end here.)

The hanger was buzzing with action as the new machine flew in. Almost everyone was crammed in the hanger, just to see the duo. The chest cavity opened up, the bottom portion creating a path for them to walk out. The pilots noticed how nearly everyone looked up in awe.

The duo hopped off the machine and walked over to a smiling Magno and BC with a stunned looking Bart, gleeful looking Jura, relaxed Barnette and Duero, and finally Dita brimming with happiness. Unable to restrain herself Dita practically flew into Naruto's arms, almost knocking him over as she cried tears of joy.

''You had us worried there for a moment young man.'' Magno noted.

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. ''Sorry about that. But now our enemies have something to worry about.'' he said, indicating the new Van...no, GunDread. From that moment on things looked like they were finally picking up.


	7. Sweet Temptations

Gundread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

00000000

Story Start

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The pirate vessel christened the Nirvana was orbiting around a desert planet. The screen images showed off various colors of brown and desolation signified deep channels and other geographical events. On the bridge, the first officer and the captain watched the main monitor.

"This planet...'' Buzom began.

''It seems dead.'' Magna finished.

"Captain, let's disembark. There might be some information about their operation." the sub-commander suggested.

The captain sighed, "BC, I'm not worried about you, but the other girls.'' she reflected on the situation a bit more. "Begin monitoring the surface of the planet and atmospheric conditions. Let's determine the best time to send down a landing party. Because of the situation we haven't had much time to raid and we are running low on supplies, at this rate we might have to begin scavenging operations."

"Roger."

Meanwhile, in the hangar where the three transformed Dreads were stored, Naruto was working on Virtue. Using parts from the other vanguards Naruto began making modifications to both Virtue and a replacement vanguard for the one he was using.

Naruto also couldn't help but ponder the merger of these transformations and the implications behind them. ''Gah, mind out of the gutter Uzumaki.'' he chided himself. ''Got to install the new weapon systems.'' the hurried condition of the repairs with his fight with Vengeance showed. He didn't even have time to get up the mimic system, a Jack of All Trades combat system that allowed him to customize the battle types and modes of his Gundam or other machines. Seeing that kid Shin's transforming Gundam in action was what gave him the idea.

Not to mention he was sure the merged GunDreads as he took to calling them had some sort of weakness, like his combination with Meia had incredible speed, but what were its defensive capabilities? Was it just another Fragile Speedster in mechanical form?

Opening the torso section above the cockpit Naruto examined the heart of Virtue. It wasn't like the others, seeing as technology from one another dimension was used to built it. The information that could be received from the half legible papers called it a Soul Drive.

All and all it was something to keep Naruto's mind busy. Something to keep his mind off his failure, his inability to stop that man from killing those dread pilots. He couldn't get the image out of his head, the red eyes and stained cheeks of mournful lovers or relatives.

Naruto was so engrossed in his thoughts that he failed to sense the presence of another person. Dita smiled as she went up the boarding ramp and gave him a wink and blew him a kiss. ''Heya Naruto!''

Dita's voice startled the blond and he nearly fell off the bar. ''Jeez, you startled me. You need something?''

''Yeah, you've spent all your time in the hangar. Don't you get tired or bored?''

''I'm doing important work I don't have time to be...'' he paused and yaw, having only taken power naps the past few days. ''I guess...I guess I should be taking better care of myself lest I want to dim my reflexes. I guess I should get something to eat, something filling.'' Dita happily went off to get him some food while he decided he should get a medical check up.

It was a rather quiet check-up, Naruto not having much to say to the Taarak men. Things didn't peek up until they weird girl with the talking doll showed up.

"What's this thing? A video game?"

"You've never seen a pulse monitor?" The physician was surprised to learn that the ship's nurse trainee was unfamiliar with basic medical equipment.

"What's it to you if I haven't?" The twelve-year-old gave Duero a kind of pout. "Anyway, all health problems can be fixed in the Jacuzzi."

"Jacuzzi?"

Naruto had to resist the urge to face palm. What the hell was wrong with this dimension?

Meanwhile in the recreation center. "Ah, space battle always damages my hair." Jura said as she lounged on a salon chair with a towel wrapped around her head. She was naked save for another towel wrapped about her body. Several attendants were massaging her legs and giving her a manicure and pedicure.

"Don't worry Jura. We're here to revive your beauty." One of the attendants assured.

"I appreciate it. I don't feel like going into battle unless my hair is set just right."

Pyoro floated beside her with a puzzled expression. "Sometimes humans don't make any sense."

Jura then glanced over to the hot tub and saw Meia soaking in it. "Meia, are you trying to lose even more weight?"

"Excess body fat gets in the way of combat." The blue-haired girl replied simply.

"But you won't have any breasts left." Jura pointed out.

"No need to worry. I can take care of myself.'' Meia was not as unconcerned with maintaining her feminine appearance as her comrade was.

Meanwhile, at the ship's mess hall, Dita was trying to decide what to get for Naruto. Plates of food moved along a conveyor belt. Not too far from her was Barnette also trying to decide what to get.

She then reached for a plate that marked with tag of 789 calories. The platter was suddenly snatched away before she could touch it. She looked over and saw Dita holding up her intended lunch.

"Dita! That thing's loaded with calories!"

"It's all right. He was saying he could use something filling.'' The Dread pilot wondered whom she was talking about as Dita walked away.

Back in the Bridge. ''Heat source response confirmed on the planet. I can't tell much, due to a large desert storm, but the response looks like an artificial building.'' Erza informed them.

''Let's disembark. We might be able to find something.'' Mango remarked. ''I guess we'll go about it the traditional pirates' way.''

Though because of the weather the Dreads were not suited for atmospheric flight or terrestrial exploration, that left only one option.

"Attention all pilots and crew members. As part of the away mission, all members should begin Vanguard simulations at once.''

Naruto almost face faulted upon seeing what was done to the Vanguards. Did they really needed to pain the things and with colorful designs? These were battle machines, they weren't meant to look pretty.

''I know it's impossible to land on the planet in the Dreads, but to pilot men's Vanguards, of all things.'' Barnette gazed upon the male mecha with extreme distaste.

"I don't care what it is." Jura said. "As long as I can combine into something wonderful!" It was pretty obvious Naruto was going to be on the mission being the only one with Vanguard experience so it made sense he would be the lead pilot in this expedition.

At this time, Bart had decided to boast. "Hey there! If anyone has any questions, please ask me! I've had endless training when I was in the military academy. You could say when it comes to Van-types..."

Bart was floored when an anti-gravity lift came down on top of him. The tech who was on it looked down and scolded, "What are you doing down there? Sheesh, we're busy, so get out of the way!''

Thankfully Naruto wasn't stupefied enough that he wasn't able to prevent Dita from painting over his machine.

A while later Naruto, Duero and Bart watched from the control center, as Dita, Barnette and Jura trained in the Vanguard simulators.

''We have a heat response, ''Belveder began. ''...but no responses for life-forms.''

''Hey, could it be _that _thing,'' Amarone began suggesting.

''You mean the razing?''

''Don't stop monitoring.'' BC ordered. ''We'll head down when the storm subsides.

''Roger!'' both navigators responded.

_''The style of combat is not something they'll adapt to so easily. Their long-range tactics is far too different from the close-ranged tactics of the Vanguards. The surprised attacks from the tactical machines were the exact opposite of instinctual machines.  
_

As the virtual Vanguards tripped and fell over each other, Jura became disgusted. "I can't take this! Why can't this baby move around with more elegance? I quit.'' She quickly exited the simulator in a huff.

At the control center, Duero nodded as he watched the pulse monitors on the simulators.

"It looks like I'll be needed on the bridge." He then saw that one of simulators was relaying that its pilot was feeling agitation and extreme stress. Apparently, the best Dread pilot was the worst Vanguard combatant.

''Heavy breathing, agitated features, must be some sort of psychological trauma.'' Naruto noted, surprising Duero.

Meia slammed a fist on the simulator's side, breathing heavily as beads of sweat were gathered on her face.

Her breathing had become labored and shallow as she sat in the confined area of the cockpit. Then her main monitor lit up._''Are there medical overrides in Mejale?''_

Duero's expression became serious._''In cases like this on Tarak, doctors have the authority to stop pilots from scrambling. Do you agree?''_

"NO!" Meia shot back.

_"Then try switching your field of view to all directions. That should lessen the impact on your body.''_

"Leave me alone! I won't take help from anyone. I can overcome any obstacle myself!''

Back with the others. "Hmmm... how to use the ten-in-one knife shield... following the will of pilot... ah, simultaneously with the electron-pulse beam! I can do this!" Bart smiled as he looked up from the Bangatta instruction manual he had read.

Naruto shook his head and pondered what to do. Meia apparently had some sort of problem and if it was going to affect her performance then they were going to need to get to the root of the problem.

However, just as he turned to rise from his seat, his view was blocked by a very ample amount of cleavage. He felt very uncomfortable as he looked up.

"Hello there." Jura said and she smiled down at the blond.

''Hello to you too. Any reason why I'm getting the hello boob attack?''

"In the next battle, you will be combining with me, Jura, next.'' she said as his cleavage threaten to swallow up his face. ''I hope you keep that engraved into your mind.'' though unfortunately for Jura, Naruto was engraving other things into his mind.

As expected, even with him backing Duero, Meia assisting it was fatigue and ignored any attempts of advice. With his attempts to help rebuff Naruto found himself in the bio-park dome with Dita and enjoying a picnic. With a rare instance of freedom from distractions or battle Naruto was able to converse and talk with her. He was able to learn a bit more about Dita.

''So why are you so open towards me? With the way the most of your crew vehemently detest men, I can't help but wonder why you're so different.''

''You see, I want everyone to see and understand from our example. I want to talk with you, get to know you, and maybe once everyone can see a man and woman getting along we can the war quickly.''

Naruto's eyes softened, seeing a bit of the real person behind the bubbly UFO girl. During the course of their talk he finally got around to eating the good Dita got for him. ''Why are you staring at me so intently?''

"It just makes me so happy to watch you." Dita replied cheerfully.

Nearby, a certain someone began clicking pictures from behind a tree."Pai check!"

And it appeared Paiway was working for Jura, conversing with the buxom blond who was taking a shower.

"That guy was at Dita's will with just one boxed lunch!''

Jura smiled after hearing Paiway's report. "Hmmm, I see."

With the information in mind Jura went about convincing Barnette to cook for her.

"Why do I have to cook because of that?" Barnette was quite irritated to learn why her partner Jura had requested that she cook up one of her special meals.

"It's so I can combine." Jura explained as she admired the polish on her nails. "Don't you love me when I'm beautiful, Barnette?"

The Dread pilot let off an irritated sigh, a cruel smile formed when she spotted a bottle of hot sauce. Without Jura noticing it, she began sprinkling a generous part of the bottle's contents then added a few other choice spices to the filet Mignon she was preparing.

Satisfied with having something to eat Naruto was one his way to take a nap when suddenly he found himself cornered by Barnette and Jura. Insistent that he came with them he didn't bother to struggle or fight.

Finally returning to the place he left no longer than minutes ago he found himself in front of a table where several platters were gathered.  
Jura lifted the lid and the aroma of food instantly caught the Shinobi's attention.

A sweet smile formed on Jura's face as she attempted to bribe the blond. ''If you agree to combine with me, you can eat it.''

''I don't know why you seem so insistent on combining with me Jura-, but I don't know the specifics behind the merger, really.'' looking at the food his stomach growled. Damn his inhuman metabolism. ''I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.'' he said as he scooped up a fork food of the concoction. ''Pretty heavy on the hot sauces and spices.'' he remarked before consuming the bite. ''Whooo!'' he said. ''I guess you two like the food extremely spicy.'' he remarked as Jura sent her lover an inquiring, suspicious glance. Surely Barnette wouldn't sabotage something so important to her.

''Let me try,'' Jura began only for Barnette to reach out and stop her.

Before anything else could be said BC's voice was heard on the intercom, stating that it was time for the Vanguard trainees and Naruto to prepare to descend toward the planet.

Naruto shrugged and hastily left the park, Jura's reminder of them combining reaching his ears. ''Sorry, no time for ice cream.'' he said, jetting past Dita who was carrying two triple flavored scoops of ice cream.

Leading the special drop-ship with the trio of Vanguards stashed inside Naruto in Virtue was trying to scan the planet's surface, wondering if he could pick up anything.

At the helm of the drop-ship was Jura. Her gaze remained focused on Virtue.

"I won't let you get away that easily." Jura said fondly as she directed the ship to follow Naruto's trajectory.

"No! Naruto- is going to combine with me!" Dita said over the com systems.

"Quiet!'' Jura shot back.

Barnette sighed. ''Oh, my.''

The Gundam and drop-ship made fiery reentry paths though the planet's atmosphere. As soon as they had passed through the clouds and cooled down, the drop-ship broke apart, letting its cargo experience free fall for a few seconds. The Vanguards deployed umbrella-like devices to float down toward the planet's surface. Virtue simply righted itself using its powerful thrusters.

On board the Nirvana."I started out late." Meia said as she ran toward her awaiting Vanguard. Pyoro floated up the girl.

"You don't need to overdo it. Won't they be all right, even without you, Meia?''

"I can't let that happen! I have my responsibilities.''

"But the drop-ship is a one-way trip. There aren't any extras.''The robot pointed out.

"What?"

On the planet's surface, the Vanguard team surveyed the seemingly desolate area. Placed off to one side were the umbrella-like devices, which also functioned like booster rockets for getting back up into orbit, once the mission was finished.

"There's nothing here." Jura commented.

Barnette agreed. "There's no need for Meia to join us."

"Wow, it's all d." Dita remarked.

''Be sure you account for your movements and the changed of location. Battle in space and land are too completely different things, especially considering the designs of Dreads meant you've never had to deal with or even planned for ground grand based combat.'' he began only for Virtue to suddenly shake as Jura suddenly crashed into him.

Jura smiled seductively in her Vanguard. "Hey, why can't we hurry up with it?''

''D-Damnit woman!'' Naruto snapped, his face going flush. ''We're on a mission. It isn't time for such things.'' he said, trying not to let his moral compass be swayed so easily.

Dita's Vanguard came stomping up to them. "Hold on! Naruto is going to do it with me!''

These women were going to kill him. He was sure at this rate if all his blood flow kept going to his lower body his brain was going to starve and he was going to end up as a vegetable, medically unlikely or not.

''Hey you. Who do you think you're talking to?'' Jura shot back.

The only one Mr. Alien is going to do it with is ME!" Dita shot back,''...Anyway, you can't!''

''ENOUGH!"' The sharp shout silenced them. ''The two of you are acting like children. How about my thoughts? My feelings? Have either of you considered the effect you're having on me? Quite frankly its getting annoying and we have a job to do not to mention I seem to combine only with your Dreads Jura, why on earth are you pestering me now when you're in a Vanguard?'' Naruto asked, shocking the blonde into realization as he activated his thrusters and took to the air. However he soon ran afoul of a sensor system and shot out a beam of red light, which caught the Gundam in the back. Several dozen more devices let loose crisscrossing beams that formed a kind of lattice above the area where the Vanguards were, effectively cutting them off from the rest of the planet.

''Shit,'' Naruto swore as an electrical impulse went through Virtue and he impacted against the ground.

On the bridge of the Nirvana, Duero became very concerned. ''Their pulses are rising. It looks like something happened!''

''A defense system seems to have been activated!'' the blonde hair navigator stated. ''The team has been surrounded by a shield that has sprung up!''

BC immediately raised the Vanguards, but the communications links had become unstable. Their responses to her hails became fuzzy.

_"We're... (crackle)(crackle)...trapped...(crackle)..."_

_"The d... is... (crackle)... attacking us...(crackle)..."_

Buzom's expression turned to confusion. "The d is attacking?"

_''What...is this...?''_

_''It seems (crackle)...like its alive.''_

High above, a lone Vanguard came down through the clouds. Inside it, Meia piloted the mecha toward the landing coordinates of the other machines. ''This is Meia! Where is everyone? Copy!''

She tried several times to raise her comrades on the communicator, but with no luck.

The desert storm whipped about them, particles started to adhere to the surface of the Vanguards and spread across them like a thick blanket of darkness.

Meia's mecha landed hard on the planet's surface. Her cockpit became dark as several systems went offline. Due to the storm, she had landed several hundred meters from where the others were. Her breathing became rapid and she was taking short gasps. Her heart thundered in her chest. Her forehead became sweaty and her eyes widened in terror.

She then heard Duero's voice on the com-link.

_"Meia, can you hear me? Open up your vision! Look as far away as you can. Can you hear me Meia?''_

The Dread leader reached out with a trembling hand and pressed a switch. "He's really nosy...''

As the monitor lit up and showed the dry landscape, her breathing became calmer and her heart rate dropped a bit. However, her relief would was proven temporary as she caught movement in the distance. Something was heading right for her.

"What is it?"

Just as BC was able to get to them the message about Meia disappearing off radar and the group were able to free themselves a new threat appeared.

Several mounds of the d on the ground began to rise and take the form of the Vanguards.

Dita struggled as on of the d-shapes grappled with her mecha. She saw that the power of their system were being drained.

"The desert is copying the Vanguard's systems! It's like they're draining the blood out of us!''

''There!'' Naruto finally announced upon finding his target. Activating the exhausts he easily blasted away the d trying to swallow up his armor. Using a beam rifle he fired only for some sort of shield to pop up and deflect it. ''Shit, I knew it would have been to easy.'' he remarked as he turned his attention to the d creatures. Firing on them, the heated beams of energy displaced the creatures. ''I have an idea on what's going on. There's some sort of machine generating these creatures. Let's find Meia first and then we'll take care of it.''

Meia shivered in fear as her Vanguard lay on its back, as the living d was swallowing it up. As the strange substance coated her mecha and rendered her helpless, her body began to lock up and her breathing rate became shallower. Her heart rate became like a hummingbird's and she couldn't seem to calm down.

"W-W-What should I do? I'm... so scared..."

Just as her machine was completely engulfed by the desert, Barnette's mecha came upon the scene.

"MEIA!"

Barnette engaged the shovel extension of her Vanguard and tried to remove the d that had trapped Meia. She couldn't use the vent exhaust as it was too clogged from the desert storm and had suffered some damage during the battle.

Suddenly, Meia's desert-coated mecha got up and knocked Barnette's machine away. It rocketed up to touch the force-field high above. This caused a loud alarm to ring out as several structures lit up and began pulsating.

"What's going on?" Magno demanded.

Ezra gasped as she read the readouts from the sudden power buildup from the planet's surface. "Some kind of auto-destruct sequence was activated!"

Another crew member confirmed this. "A countdown has begun... three hundred seconds to detonation!"

"Nirvana to landing party! Get out of there now!" BC cried out.

Inside the mecha, the Dread Leader was in a state of catatonic shock and didn't seem to notice anything at all. She was suddenly jolted back to reality as her Vanguard was suddenly knocked on its back. She then heard Naruto's voice over the communicator.

"Meia- what the hell are you doing? Get your head in the game and get that stuff off you!''

"S-Stop it. Don't bother with me.'' she miserably whispered.

"Don't be so damn foolish!" Naruto shot back. "Are you just going to give up? To hell with everyone that cares about you? Do you think I'll sit by and watch you die?''

By this time, the d had coated Meia's Vanguard in a layer that was too dense for such measures. He needed another way. It was then that he noticed a kind of storage tank nearby. His sensors picked up a kind of gas that was a great deal of several degrees colder than the outside temperature. Firing into the tank it exploded, unleashing its payload of freezing mist. The cloud of cooling vapors spread across the area, chilling everything in its path. At the same time, the force-field above them deactivated as the circuitry became frozen.

"What are you doing? It's cold. I'm going to freeze!'' Jura complained, then realized something. "Freeze...?" She looked through her monitor and saw that the d-creature she had fought suddenly became stiff and brittle. It then broke apart into a pile of shards. The other enemies followed suit.

"Amazing Naruto!'' Dita cheered.

The sand that was coating it cracked apart, allowing Meia to see daylight again. '_To think I owe that man a debt now.'_

''Baka, haven't you learned anything yet?'' he asked her over the link. ''Man, woman, it doesn't matter, it's a matter of survival. If you don't want to die, then grab my hand.''

"Time's up."

Amarone replied as the countdown meter on her console reached a full zero.

On the bridge of the Nirvana, Magno and the rest of her crew watched with apprehension as the surface of the desert planet was engulfed in huge balls of fire and explosive force in orange-red color. Duero's medical monitors were showing nothing but static. There was a deep foreboding silence all over the ship, as the pirates feared for the worst. Then Duero's attention went back to the monitors as all five readouts displaying the landing party went back online as several objects broke out of the massive conflagrations that tore up the planet's surface.

"All Vanguards are accounted for."

Ezra said with a strong amount of relief in her voice.

The rest of the bridge personnel let off a collective sigh of relief as well. It was then that one of the bridge crew namely Belvedere announced that she had received some data from the investigation. ''We intercepted some data from the planet.''

"Read it." BC ordered.

Belvedere became a bit tense,'''huh?''

''What's wrong? Didn't you hear me?''

''I'm sorry, I'll read it now.'' she said as she continued. ''This season's harvest items. Red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, lymph cells, etc. All components in good condition. This is where the data ends.''

''Captain...this is...'' BC began.

''It looks like the enemy really wanted to harvest...was us.'' the captain noted as a tense expression formed on her face. ''I guess they only think of us as something like vegetables. There is one thing that I have learned from this incident. It is that we are facing something truly formidable.''

In the hanger bay, the Vanguards were being placed away, but Parfait had decided that they would be maintained from now on, for when they would be needed again. With the aliens now stepping up in their attacks and such, it was a very real possibility.

Dita and the other pilots sat off to one side.

_'What a disgrace.' _Meia thought. _'To have my life being saved by him once again.'_

Speaking of said man he made his way to where the Captain was. ''Hey Magno-obaa-, we need to talk.''

The captain didn't say a word, but merely nodded, already figuring just what the topic of the conversation was. Meia.


	8. What a Wonderful World

Gundread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

000

Opening- Song by One Ok Rock

000

An image of red blood cells appears followed by White blood cells. The ligaments of the human body appear, followed by tissues and other identifiers of the human body. Slowly but surely the image expands before it reveals the image of the human body. The body disappears in a flash of green light as an image of the Nirvana flying through space appears.

An image of Naruto in Virtue appears. He's flying through space when in a flash Vengeance and Akuryou appear. Their beam sabers clash and both are forced away from each. He fires a charged particle beam to which Naruto narrowly avoids only to be hit by some missiles, sending him crashing into a meteor.

_So now my time is up_

_Your game starts, my heart moving?_

_Past time has no meaning for us, it's not enough!_

_Will we make it better or just stand here longer_

_Say it "we can't end here till we can get it enough! _

Right before he could be killed Akuryou is blown off course. An image of Dita, Meia, and Jura's dread flies by. The image cracks into three triangles showing their faces. A smirk formed on Naruto's face as Virtue dislodges itself from the meteor. The four of them begin flying at Akuryou when their developed by a white light.

_Zettaiteki konkyo wa uso darake_

_Itsudatte aru no wa boku no_

_Jishin ya fuan o kakimazeta_

_Yowai you de tsuyoi boku!_

Images of the Nirvana are shown. BC and Magna are on the bridge with the former giving orders. Amarone and the other navigators are on their consoles when data appears. It then switched to a view of Bart who was currently navigating, extending his out his hand and yelling something as a powerful beam of energy erupts from the Nirvana wiping out a squadron of enemies. Duero, Parfeit and the other members of the Nirvana are shown during their usual duties.

_This is my own judgement! Got nothing to say!_

_Moshimo hoka ni nanika omoitsukya sokkou iu sa!_

_Kanzen kankaku Dreamer ga boku no mei sa_

An image of the Blue giant is quickly shown destroying enemies with its twin canon. An image of Gundread Meia appears, slicing through one of the Sea Urchins with ease. Finally an image of Gundread Jura shielded the Nirvana from enemy attack, as it uses its disks to fire on the enemy.

_Itsudatte aru no wa boku no_

_Jishin ya fuan o kakimazeta_

_Yowai you de tsuyoi boku!_

Dark images of shrouded figures appeared. Vengeance fires the Charged Particle gun and of Harbringer glowing with a menacing red light. Shadowed visions of the Harvester's forces then appear.

_When I'm caught in fire_

_When I rise up higher_

_Do you see me out there?_

_I can't get enough! Can't get enough!_

The image comes down to Naruto in the ship's bio garden. Suddenly he's glomp on his right arm by Dita. He's hugged from behind by Jura. An amused Meia stood off to his left, a brief flash of their machines appear behind him as everything goes to black.

00000

Story Start

000000

"Surface wound on the head and ruptured spleen! She also has a visually fractured femur." Duero said as he assessed the pilot's injuries.

Naruto and Dita were running beside the physician as he guided the gurney toward the sick bay. After towing her damaged Dread back to the Naruto and the red-haired pilot rushed the Dread leader to the emergency room. Jura was now in command of the Dread teams in Meia's absence.

"OPEN UP THE EXAMINATION TABLE!" The doctor shouted as they burst into the sick bay and slid Meia's gurney under an examination scanner. Immediately, the only doctor on board the Nirvana went to work. He stripped off the top of Meia's flight suit without hesitation and did not take notice of her breasts. He had read up on female anatomy ever since taking up the title of the Nivana's surgeon. What was important now was to stabilize Meia's vital functions. Paiway immediately came to Meia's side with a syringe as Duero instructed her to administer the sedatives.

During the administrations, Meia's headpiece fell off and made a clinking noise on the floor as pieces of crystal went scattering. As the sedatives began to take effect, Meia's consciousness began slipping away. Before darkness overcame her, she uttered one word.

"Mother..."

Out in space, things were not going well. "A-Team, go formation Alpha-one! B-Team, uh, let's see..." Jura became indecisive as she tried to direct the Dreads the way she thought Meia would have done. S

Unfortunately, the Dread teams became more disorganized as the enemy continued to press the attack. Several of the female pilots were out of commission as the aliens cut through their ranks and started attacking the Nirvana itself.

''Jura get a hold of yourself.'' Barnette said over the link. ''The formation's all in pieces.''

''I...I know!'' she stammered, panic feeling her eyes. ''I know, but...'' a blast cut her off, sending her ship flying and off course.

On the bridge, Magno and Buzom knew that the situation was going to get worse, especially after hearing that the leader of the Dreads had become incapacitated. The enemy was now using decoys and new enemy types to cause further disarray and confusion.

_''We've lost the first rear shield!''_

_''Their focusing the attacks on the Starboard bow!''_

_''C Team, return to formation.''_

_''Where is everyone?''_

_''Who's in charge?''_

The transmissions came in one by one.

_"Three more Dreads are rendered inoperative!"_

_"I can't find anyone out here!"_

The enemies had focused their attacks on the Vanguard units first. There small and durability made them effective against the first onslaught of cubes but the sheer numbers soon overwhelmed them. As a result two out of eight of the recovered Vanguards that were destroyed. The sheer amount of orders and repair information was soon overwhelming the register. Despite Gascogne's attempt to keep cool heads it was obvious things were in terrible shape.

Naruto and Dita rejoined the battle shortly after seeing to Meia being okay. Once again he was only able to partially complete one of the armored sets, the Heavy Arms armor set as he went into battle. Activating the Micro Missiles he launched two pods, each containing twelve micro-missiles that were mounted on the legs of Virtue. Two dozen enemy crafts were subsequently blown out of the sky.

In the sick bay, Duero and Paiway were desperately trying to stabilize Meia's condition.

"Paiway! Adjust the oxygen saturation levels. We've got to keep Meia from going into shock!"

As the apprentice nurse followed the doctor's orders, she noticed a glint near Mei's left eye. She gasped as she saw a trickle of moisture run down the Dread leader's cheek.

"I've never seen them before! Meia's tears."

Inside her mind, Meia's memories of her childhood came bubbling up to the surface. She saw her ohma and fahma fuss over a little, blue-haired girl as she came home from school. Meia's parents had been scientists that were involved in a research facility that had promised biological advancements which would improve living conditions to Mejele's populace.

The scenes then flashed forward to a Christmas eve in which she had received the Paksis crystal headpiece that she now wore. Her mother (fahma), smiled as she commented that it was wonderful gift that Meia's ohma had given to her. More images flashed by as happier times were brought up. Then one scene in particular appeared. It was a memory that would haunt Meia for the rest of her days, and it was the main reason the normally tough Dread leader was fearful of closed places. She saw herself being packed into a space capsule with dozens of other children as explosions and chaos ran amok. She reached out toward the hatch at her ohma, but the gentle-looking woman smiled sadly and shook her head, saying that this was for the best. Then the door slammed shut and Meia saw only darkness.

_''At this rate.''_ Naruto thought, his ammo counter dropping rapidly. _''I need to quickly take out that enemy before it neutralizes us.'' _and with Meia down he couldn't rely on speed. He then began searching around the battlefield for Dita. ''Dita!" he shouted through the comm-link.''Quick! Combine with me now!''

Dita perked up in surprise. This was the first time Naruto asked to combine instead of it happening on instinct "Uh... sure."

In just a few seconds, the machine flew up inside Dita's fighter. A bright flash of light later, and Gundread Dita was now joining the battle. Its colors now being a mixture of blue and silver and sporting four mini-canons around its arm. Just as Naruto hoped the special equipment was also integrated into the fusion. ''We're heading for the new prototype. Hang on!''

(Shadow Hearts: Covenant OST-Crisis)

It easily swatted aside a few Cube-Types as it homed in on its target. What this fusion lacked in speed it made up in power.

Once they were in range, he engaged the shoulder cannons, took aim only to have to duck as they narrowly avoiding collision with an asteroid. ''Kuso! You won't get away!'' the machine did a 180 as it began firing ammunition at the speedy machine that barrel rolled out of the way leaving images behind. ''Damnit! That thing is a counter for that Vandread fusion. Even if this is an improved Gundread fusion it prioritizes combat against vast amount of units over speed and agility. We can't keep up.''

''What are we going to do Naruto?'' Dita asked, worry was spread across her face.

At that moment, Jura's Dread came along them. "Hey you're fused aren't you! Why aren't you destroying those things like always! What's taking so long.''

''Hey!'' Naruto snapped. ''Its not that easy. You can't just throw something out there and expect it to work. Your formations...'' Naruto bit his tongue. This was no time for arguing or letting his temper distract him.

While listening in on the communications on the confusion and arguments between the pilots and crew, Buzom frowned in frustration. "We've taken Meia's leadership for granted a little too much. We've neglected to train a sub-leader, leader.''

Magno sighed. "That girl didn't allow us to. She avoided contact with people unless necessary. That is, she avoided relying on people.

From the first moment I picked her up for this group. I knew this day would someday come, but...'' she paused, thinking to the misfortune that befell Meia. ''Since that accident, the eyes of the society that praised her so had turned around and become cold. And at that same time she realized she had nothing to live for. That girl is just punishing herself, though it's a mistake that everyone makes at some point. She's blaming it all on her own weakness. She often said_ 'I don't need anything important. Because those things exist people become weak. I want to be strong. I want strength so I won't be hurt, no matter what happens.'_

The battle raged on outside of the Nirvana, as the main Dread fighter groups were pulled back for repairs and rearmament. The secondary groups were flying to support the defensive lines and were supported by the Vanguards, until Jura and the more seasoned pilots were ready to go out again.

However, the blonde pilot was in no condition, physically or mentally, to go out and lead the fighters. After that disaster with the formations, she had retreated into her own shell and was presently sitting and sobbing in a corner of the Register. Her face was against her knees as her long hair hid her expression.

"I... can't do it! I can't be Meia's replacement.''

''Don't get all high and mighty! Nobody's asking you to be a replacement for Meia.''

Jura looked up to see the head supplier standing over her. Gascogne nodded as she explained. "That's why you can relax and rely on others. You're you, not Meia. Don't bother doing what you can do in the first place. Consider what you can and can't do. That's all you need to tell everyone.''

Inside Meia's head, the Dread pilot was now visualizing her life after being packed into that escape capsule. The scandal that had caused the ruin of her parent's company also made her an outcast, She saw herself growing up on the streets, fighting for survival and acceptance. She could hear the whispers of people passing by, stating that she was no better than scum now. They mocked and teased at her. She had been a famous person once, the daughter of two very well-respected scientists. It wasn't long before she had fallen into a bout of depression and despair. Soon, her only goal in life, was to end was when she had encountered the pirate captain.

Naruto and Dita sat inside of the Gundread as it was being resupplied under the Gundread.

"I wonder if Leader's going to die?" Dita found herself holding back her tears. ''If something like that were to happen.''

''Don't cry...'' Naruto gently said as he place his hands on her shoulders. ''Meia's strong, she'll pull through. There's no time to fear or worry, that only causes doubt and weakness. One has to be strong in virtues of Wisdom and Courage. One musn't be afraid to take that next step or they were never truly alive in the first place. One who is not alive can not die and since your leader hasn't appeared to take that first step it isn't her time. That and she's so damn stubborn.'' he added. ''Leave Meia's fate to the doctor. Its our job to protect the Nirvana with everything we have.''

Dita sniffled a bit, then smiled. "You're right. Thank you, Naruto."

It was then that they both received a message from Jura."Everyone listen up. Change the frequencies of the barriers and beams. Follow the data patterns I'm sending you! That way we won't shoot each other down.''

''Time to go.'' Naruto said as they disengaged from the ship and joined the battlefield.

(Song end)

Duero found himself out of alternatives. He couldn't risk brain surgery on Meia now, so he had called on Parfat to rig an ultrasonic psycho-stimulator. In theory, the machine would cause the Paksis fragment to disintegrate, thereby bring Meia back from her near-comatose state. However, if it did not work, then she would never be the same again.

Meia screamed out as the stimulator was activated, Her body thrash about in violent convulsions, making everyone present very tense. After a minute of the treatment, her form stiffened up, then collapsed back on to the table. The monitors that were displaying her vital signs flat-lined.

"MEIA!" Parfait screamed.

Meia felt as if she could now let go. It was so peaceful, so quiet. She felt no pain, no worries, nothing at all. She found herself standing on a grass field under a clear blue sky. She could finally rest in peace.

However, just before she let herself fall into oblivion, she head a voice. It was a gentle voice which she instantly recognized.

_"I'm a very weak person. I didn't have the courage to go outside like you and your Ohma. My dream was at least to create a place where you could relax in safety when you two came home. When you were happy or when you were sad. When you were full of energy or when you were tired. A place where I can greet you with a ''welcome home'' no matter what kind of day it was.''_

''That's not it!'' Meia replied to the manifestation, finding the will to get up. ''You weren't weak mother! I was the one that was weak! I didn't have the courage to understand others' feelings. I was afraid of showing others how I felt. I was afraid of not being liked.'' she continued, her body starting to tremble.

_''Meia...you really are a girl with very kind feelings and a very strong will. So you don't have to blame yourself anymore. You have nothing to fear now. Open up your heart. People can't live by themselves. Go find the place where you can return to. Where the people who hold you dear are waiting. '' _the image then disappear.

''W-Wait!'' she cried out, looking for her mother. I still have things I want to tell you. Things I want to hear.

_'Meia!'_

_'Leader!'_

_'Meia!'_

_'Hey Meia!'  
_

_'Meia-chan. Wake up!'_

The voices her crew mates, the pilots, and even his voice pierced through the darkness.

"It's so bright..." Meia mumbled as she opened her eyes and looked at the overhead operating light. Standing above her and sobbing were Paiway and Parfait.

"Meia thank goodness!'' The engineer exclaimed happily.

''She's been saved!'' Paiway said, both weeping heavily.

''Look at the two of you.'' Meia reached up to feel her face, and instantly realized that her headpiece was gone.

"No need to worry. It's right here." The doctor said as he held up Meia's most prized possession. "It seems its something important to you.''

Meia shook her head. "No. That's a lesson for me.''

Meanwhile the battle was heating up. ''Obaa-san I have a plan.'' Naruto set as his communication went through.

Magno perked up at this announcement. "I hope this plan of ours isn't suicidal.''

''Tch, it takes greater odd then this before such a thing could happen. Just give me the reading of all Dread defensive data and energy readings. I have to factor in the numbers just right.''

The enemy ships began to pull back, coming together for one last final offensive.

A barrage of beams and cannon fire pounded on the barrier of the Nirvana, causing it to flicker and buckle under the strain.

The barrier gave way, leaving the ship open to attack. Inside of his navigation well, Bart cried out in pain as the Nirvana took several direct hits.

The enemy vessels closed in and were now committed to the attack.

(SD Gundam Force- His Name Is Captain OST)

The Dreads charged forward as Gundread Dita let the counterattack. The Mobile Unit began to shake heavily from the intense enemy fire. ''I...I can't take this!" Dita cried out.

However Naruto softly grasped her hand. ''We can't give up now.'' he said as they continued firing blasts to draw the enemy attention. ''Now...LET'S GO!'' The Gundread thrust out its arms and let loose with multiple blasts of quantum energy which shot out toward the Dreads and Vanguards. Each shot reflected off the shields of his allies and lanced toward the enemy in all directions. The results were devastating for the opposing side. Cruisers and Cube-Types were blown away, along with asteroids and any other obstacles. Even the new, ultra-fast enemy fighter was blown to pieces as it couldn't dodge shots being fired in all directions. There was one massive explosion as the main body of the enemy force was annihilated.

(Song End)

Meia couldn't sleep. After spending a few hours, sitting in her room and staring out the large picture window at the stars outside, she decided that she needed some air.

After putting on her usual attire, she decided to visit the ship's mess hall. The other pilots had celebrated their latest victory over the aliens and were now sleeping off the effects of overindulgence. Plates were piles high on all the tables. Empty bottles were strewn all over the place. Crew members were either slumbering on the floor or in their chairs. Though the Dread leader didn't approve of this lack of discipline, she didn't fault them for it. They had earned this. They had defeated the enemy...without her.

She then walked over to a table where the plates were piled the highest and saw Dita sleeping. Without a doubt this was where the blond had eaten but he was no where in sight.

Meia assumed that was the table in which Naruto had eaten. However, she did not find the blond slumbering after pigging out. She looked down at the empty chair and became lost in thought for a while, until she heard footsteps behind her.

"They all did their best today."

"Captain." The Dread leader turned to face the Nirvana's commander.

The old woman gestured with her walking stick at the empty chair. "He's a lot like you. Stubborn, always throwing himself into battle, and fiercely protective, but unlike you he doesn't keep all of his feelings bottled up. He's gotten inside everyone's heart before we knew it.'' When Meia did not respond to that remark, the ancient woman added, "Meia... Isn't it about time that you forgive yourself?''

Meia gazed out at the stars through another observation port and considered her leader's words. The door closed behind her and shortly after it opened again, this time Naruto stepping in. The last few conversations they had were anything but friendly. She was called to a meeting where Buzom, Naruto, and Dueo were present. She was officially barred from leading any Vanguard missions because she was diagnosed with having Claustrophobia. Of course she took the statement with anything but grace, slightly slipping back into the man hating ways of Meljare. It only stung more when Naruto had been selected to lead the Vanguard squad. He had approached her after the meeting. She of course rebuffed his attempts at an Olive Branch.

_As such three days had passed without her so much as speaking with him. The Nirvana soon came across an asteroid belt near a massive planet. At that point it was almost expected for the enemy to attack. Yet another new kind of fighter arrived, this one avoiding its predecessor's weakness by having improved acceleration over a powerful defense.  
_

_''Meia. What are you waiting for? Let's combine!'' Naruto said over the link but she annoyed. ''Damnit Meia! This isn't time for that.''_

_Meia's fury blinded her. She couldn't help but feel she had become complacent, weak for relying on the blond. Pushing her ships to the limit she tried to keep up with the enemy ship but it was proving fruitless._

_'Meia!'  
_

_''I don't need you! I don't need anyone! I WON'T BE WEAK ANY LONGER!'' She stubbornly shouted back. Though that was quickly proven wrong as the agile enemy shit slipped out from in front to her side and opened fire. The hit landed near the cockpit and badly damaged the machine. Meia was knocked out from the force of the blow, sustaining a heavy head injury as the result.''_

''How...are you?'' Naruto greeted her.

''I'm fine.'' she answered, not looking him in the eyes. ''I heard what happened. You were able to defeat the enemy without me.''

''Something I hope isn't going to happen again anytime soon. I thought you had died out there for a moment. You and your reckless actions.'' he had to stop himself from yelling and waking up members of the crew. ''You let your pride get in the way of common sense. You rebuffed the advice of a medical professional and put yourself and others in danger more than once now. You're supposed to be the commanding leader of your forces yet you care so little for the help of others you inadvertently cut off a chance to help others. Haven't you realized by refusing help from others you in exchange aren't giving them help either? What if instead of going after you the enemy went after Dita or one of the others? What if they hadn't been as lucky as you were?'' Naruto paused, having to cool his head.

Meia didn't fight back. Everything he said was true. They were lucky, so many times they were lucky that this time around no one had died.

''Meia...please,'' he pleaded. ''Open your hearts to others. Let us help you.''

"You're right."

Naruto paused, wondering if he was hearing things. ''E-Excuse me?"

Meia swallowed a bit. "You were right. I should have combined with you. That fighter was just too fast for my Dread. I was just too stubborn to admit it. My actions could have led to the death of others and I realize that now. I won't repeat the same mistakes.''

''Then please, let me help you.'' he gently prodded. ''I'm not asking you as a man to a woman or one pilot or another. I'm asking you Meia from one person to another to let me help you. As just Naruto. I know you were raised to believe men are the enemy, but I truly do come from a world where men and women love, trust, and respect each other. Well, about say sixty percent of us but you get the point I'm trying to make right? I won't hurt you! I won't leave you behind! In no way will I intentionally betray you. I swear on my name and pride as Uzumaki Naruto if I don't live up to my word then stab me right through the heart with this.'' he said, pulling out a kunai from his pouch and placing it in her hand.

The sincerity in his words and the look in his eyes had struck a chord in the young woman. That maybe, maybe he was finally getting through to her.''Alright Uzumaki. I suppose I'm willing to try it your way.'' while Mia didn't completely trust the blond, a part of her respected him. And the only way to change was to make that first step.


	9. Tensions Low and High Part 1

Gundread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

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Story Start

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_''Emotional weakness. Its something that's inflicted several people. You've realized it now, that having nothing to fight for makes you weak. Without having anything to fight for you can't give it your all. I've known many people like you Meia-chan, including myself. Distrust and hatred is something others and I have felt, but only those who are strong choose to live and endure. You are in a position of authority, you are a leader and you must be an inspiration. Even if I do not look like it I'm a leader of several groups and have trained several leaders in my place. An important aspect of being a good leader is compassion. If you're willing to learn to first steps of compassion then spend some time around me. If you can come to trust me then you should have no problem opening up to the others.''_

The more Meia spoke with Naruto, the more his words seem to struck a chord. Finally deciding to bury her hostility towards the blond she began spending time with him. An arrangement of sorts, she would spend time with him, training and such and exchange he would help her get over her claustrophobia issues. He noted that being the leader of the Dread forces was important to her, being in battle was something she lived for because it put her in a position to protect others. She may not become the Vanguard leader as a result, but getting over her phobia was still something to work for.

Meia entered the training room, she was wearing a mid-riff bearing white top with black stripes on the end and training pants of the same color schemes. She was quite athletically built as well with strong, lean legs. ''There is a type of battle system, a Gundam type where you actually use combat moves and they mimic your actions. There are other Gundam types that react to your reactions and senses. Improving your actual combat abilities outside your mechanical units slightly effects your performance depending on the Gundam type.''

''Why are you telling me this?'' she asked as Naruto moved on the opposite of her.

''Because if there is ever a time that I'm disabled I want you to pilot Virtue.'' he stated as Meia's eyes widened.

''What?''

''No offense to the others, but you're easily the best of the Dread pilots. You're serious and to pilot and master a Gundam you have to be either gifted, extremely stubborn, or spend years studying how to pilot mech units. But that's something to worry about for another time. Right now we're here to learn about combat ability. What I want to teach you is a type of Chinese Martial Arts; Wushu, taught to me by a man by the name of Kensei Ma.'' (Kenichi Mightest Disciple)

''And what is required of these martial arts?'' she asked.

''Talent, skills, and wit. To make maximum use of it you'll develop strength, speed, durability, endurance, and agility. One can deflect blows, develop their five senses to the utmost limit along with a sixth sense of perfection among other things. Now, come at me with everything you have and I'll give you an example of several techniques.'' he said as Meia nodded.

Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose. She then slowly moved forward for a few seconds before charging forward. She threw a punch when Naruto threw his arms up and began doing a spinning motion with his arms. Before she realized it her attack had been neutralized and she realized what happened Naruto jerked the lower portion of his body up and spun, the unnatural movement of his had stunned Meia. The attack nailed her in the side and sent her flying to the ground, a grunt escaping from her lips as she rolled over a few times before coming to a stop and clutching her side.

''That defensive technique is called Kakei. It neutralizes or minimize the force of his opponents attacks.'' he explained. The two of them were so into the spar they hadn't noticed Paiway peeping on them, with a camera ready.

''Pai-check!''

In the cafe several of the Mejerains were discussing what was being said. ''Did you hear?'' a creamy skinned, violet haired Mejeran wearing black shorts and violet top that showed off her cleavage with a window halfway down to her stomach with knee-length black boots. ''Leader and the man were sparring in the training room.''

''I'm glad to hear Meia-san is feeling better.'' Erza said as she placed a hand over her swollen stomach. She would be due in quite some time.

''You...you don't think leader is growing interested in the man like Dita is?'' Celtic asked, only for the group of girls to be startled when Barnette slammed her hands on the table startling the group of girls.

''Absolutely not!'' she exclaimed. ''Women and men associating! They are the enemy, we are only tolerating them because they have been proven useful for our survival, that's all.''

''B-But that man isn't like a beast.'' Vanilla brought up. ''And unlike the other Taarkans he seems comfortable around us. What if he's telling the truth? I mean, we've been fighting against men for a while now and they've never used anything like a Gundam.''

''It could be a lie,'' Barnette argued. ''The moment we let our guards down he'll...'' she paused when Naruto and Meia entered the cafeteria. The latter looked quite winded.

''And you really think we might have to fight our opponent in hand to hand combat?'' she wondered as they both grabbed a dish.

''Its possible. I plan on talking with the Captain and Commander about it and if anyone else wish to take lessons I'll be willing to train them. With my ability to make Kagebunshin it shouldn't be that difficult to organize something.''

''That is useful,'' Meia nodded.

''I also think we should practice combining in a non-combat situation. It'll be useful if we analyze their exact capabilities.''

Barnette rather nosily got up, even gaining their attention as she made her way out of the cafe. _ 'Men and women? Friends. Nonsense!'  
_  
Sure enough both the Captain and Commander supported the ideas. '_'Uzumaki Naruto reporting in.'_' the blond said as his face appeared on the screen.

''All status are reporting at maximum proficiency.'' Amarone stated as she finished her scans on Naruto's Gundam.

''This is Dita! Ready!'' she said in her usual cheerful tone.

''Belvedere. Dita's dread readers are reading at optimum proficiency.'' Belvedere stated.

''I am in position and ready.'' Meia stated.

''Leader's Dread is showing no abnormal signs.'' Celtic stated.

''Alright pilots remember,'' B.C. began. ''...there's no telling when our enemy will next attack so lets make this training session as efficient and quick as possible.''  
_  
''Right...'_' the three pilots said.

''Naruto! Let's combine!'' Dita said as she went flying at the blond at full speed. With that the blue giant was formed.

''Alright, let's test the speed and maneuverability of the Gundread.'' B.C. ordered as the giant began following Meia's dread. The testing session proved to be quite valuable as without its boosters Gundread Dita could only reach up to seventy-five percent of the speed of Meia's Dread and Gundread Meia sustained damage far more easily then the other combo after repeated high speed attacks against asteroids. To say Naruto was exhausted was quite the understatement. With low energy and high hormones he was going to need a cold shower. Unfortunately since he only had the presence of mine to bring a two additional sets of clothing that meant he had to wash and basically wear the same thing every other day. A knock on his door drew his attention and he went to it. Opening it he was suddenly boob attacked by a pair of very large breasts in a violet dress.

''Why hello there.'' Jura greeted. ''You and I are going to have a little **discussion.'**' she said as she dragged the blond down the hall to the training room. She was going to get the blond to combine with her no matter what it took. And she was in no way being a bit irrational when her offer to try and combine with him during the training session was rebuffed.


	10. Tensions Low and High Part 2

Gundread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

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Story Start

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Akuryou sat as he watched his machine be repaired. His closed hands covering his mouth as his serene, ocean blue eyes watched as the enhancements of his machines were being taken care of. ''What now old man?'' he rudely asked, craning his head to face a rather tall man with an aged faced. He looked to be in his sixties with a full thick beard and grey hair. He had small, sullen eyes and he wore a large white cape over a black general's uniform. He had a certain cold and authority about him unlike the madness that surrounded Akuryou.

''You have a new target.'' the man said as he tossed the folder he was carrying on the ground. The contents of the folder slid open to reveal a blue haired boy wearing an orange shirt. ''This boy has some kind of connection to the Paeksis Pragma unit. The command unit. Earth has the Paeksis Del or the Delete unit and we have the Paeksis Merger the Merging Unit.''

''Gaah. What the hell does this have to do with me? I'm not here for history lessons old man, I'm here for the thrill of battle.'' Akuryou said as he took out a switchblade from his pants pocket and began running it along his fingers.

''Remember who you owe your life to.'' the man said as Akuryou snarled.

''Fine...Paeky units or whatever the hell you were talking about. What's so special about'em?''

''The Paeksis units are one of many attempts to make a limitless energy source that reacts on emotions. I want the units those pirates have in one piece so on no circumstances will you destroy that vessel.''

''Yeah, yeah, only one thing. You're little trinket is a pain in the ass. Uzumaki and tramps he's traversing with now is using its powers. Unless you've been holding out on me I don't think kid gloves are going to be enough to take it back.'' the killer said as he cracked his back.

''We have taken that into account.'' the man said as he brought a device out of the inner pocket of his robe. He then activated a screen that materialized in front of Akuryou.

''You're shitting me.'' he said as he saw the image. ''The hell is that?''

''That is the new mobile Gundam Suit Harbringer.'' he said as an image of the suit as magnified. It was slightly bigger than the Vengeance of Harbringer and its entire outer shell was silver. This unit was developed by bringing together all the data gathered from the performance of nearly every past battle. It is one of the four keys to the ultimate Gundam. Using the four Paeksis units and collecting the four gundams we will create a weapon without peer. Harbringer is one of those keys and your Vengeance is another. Both were created with the proper specs of synchronization.''

''Okay old man you're finally talking about something that isn't just shit to my ears. So what can this Harbringer do?''

The man hmmed, not even bothering to make an undignified gesture at Akuryou's rude behavior.''As I said before this unit was constructed by studying battles in the past. Those petty conflicts in the past were merely instigated for the combat data. It has the adaptability of the Strike Freedom and its high speed mobility, and long range weaponry while also having the close ranged combat weaponry of Infinite justice. It also has a special type of armoring that allows is maneuverability in all terrains from space, the ocean, and even the desert.''

Akuryou let out a whistle at that. ''Damn, and how long have you guys been developing this thing?''

''Six long decades. This completed model is the 22nd prototype. Being able to fit the amount of weaponry acquired along with making the necessary alloys and such was both an expensive and time consuming project. There is also the Omitted Mainframe Emotional Range Analyzer. It is based off the Zoning & Emotional Range System except that it completely rewrites certain electrical impulses in the brain, completely shutting down your emotions and allowing you to analyze battle outcomes and become aware of future outcomes and possible courses of action that can be taken to achieve total victory or total defeat far better then the previous system. It's been testing on over 12,000 subjects since its creation and initial stages four decades ago, amusingly enough the pilot brain waves is similar to yours. In two days time we will upgrade the Vengeance with a similar system and similar upgrades that the Harbringer has.''

''Damn old man. That's serious overkill for some punk kid.''

''He and Uzumaki share common ancestry. The boy's ancestors are the ones who created the Paeksis and one of members of his ancestory stumbled into the shinobi nation and became Uzumaki's ancestor. The Paeksis Pragma will only react to the two of them or another ancestor; if there is one alive from that particular blood line. As you are aware of he has other relatives, but not of that ancestry line. So bring the boy, this Tokai to me.''

Akuryou snorted. ''Isn't he on that all men planet? That's a hell of a turnaround.''

''No,'' the general said. ''It appears he made off with some Vanguard and disappeared. The Earth forces have said they haven't encountered him.''

''And you trust them?''

The general chuckled. ''They know not to make enemies of us. I do know that another ship was in the area and we are currently tracking them. They're in the general area of where that pirate ship was at. Be ready Akuryou; this time you should have no reason to fail.'' the general said. 'Harbringer's pilot will be arriving in the hour. I expect you get along with her cordially.''

Akuryou gave out a grunt to let the man know he heard him. As far as he was concerned he was more than enough, especially once the enhancements were completed. The General then walked away.

''...and thats what it takes you know.'' Naruto said as he was able to explain to Jura that it wasn't that he didn't want to combine with her, it was just that it required two minds thinking exactly alike or at least thats what he assumed it was.

''So if I spend all my time with you then our thoughts will begin to match?''

''Actually I...'' he began but he was boobed attack once again.

''Then it's settled. We'll have our thoughts synchronized in no time.'' she said as Naruto groaned, slowly being suffocated by Jura's breasts. Though thankfully enough when it came to the training session she didn't complain too much. ''Two on one?'' she asked, placing her hand on her left hip and narrowed her eyes. ''Are you insinuating that we need some sort of handicap?''

''Don't take this the wrong way Jura-san, but I've been training since I was eight years old in various martial-arts. Not to mention you can see what I can do so far. Also you want to combine with me, not for the most noble of reasons I might add, but you never know what abilities we might need and I figure that it can also help if you and Meia fight as a team which may result in the possibility of putting you in a similar state of mind. Come at me with anything you like ladies. Be warned, I'm going to try a bit and you might end up bruised. But don't worry, I promise the face is off limits.'' he added rather cheekily, sending a glance in Jura's direction sensing the subject on the tip of her tongue. Meia moved into a fighting stance and Jura drew her sword. The stance she got in showed off her legs quite marvelously as her sword pointed to him and she moved her other hand back. ''Now, begin!'' he said as both women made their move. It didn't even take for Naruto witness Meia having to stop and avoid Jura's thrust for him to realize it was going to take awhile, the two pilots when compared side by side were as different as two people could be.

He used his speed to his advantage, drawing a kunai and parrying one of Jura's attacks while twisting out of the way of one of Meia's punches. The two women continued to attack him, showing remarkable energy and any time there was an opening Naruto returned with a palm strike of elbow jab. At first between Meia's tight suit and Jura's swishy skirt it was kind of hard to concentrate, but after taking a few moments to calm his hormones, Naruto was able to focus. After all if he was a perpetual horny teenager twenty-four seven he doubted he would have lasted this long. Without even realizing intense gazes soon turned into smiles as devolved from a spar and more of a competition of sorts. Solemn looks soon turned into grins or in Meia's case a slight smirk; which drew the attention of members of the crew one by one.

When it was over the Dread pilots were breathing heavily and sweating while Naruto was slightly winded. It had been a while since he had been on the defensive for such a prolonged amount of time. With the performance finally over the other crew members began to cheer and clap.''I have to say you know how to make a girl work up a sweat.'' Jura warmly smiled at him. ''I look forward to seeing this training pay off.'' she winked at him and tossed her hair to the side before exiting to leave the gym for a nice long bath. Naruto couldn't help but notice the sway in her hips as well as her well shaped butt. His gaze didn't linger to long as his eyes briefly met with the woman in purple. With how protective that Barnette woman was and what he knew of the pirates culture they were most likely lovers. '_A damn shame._' Naruto thought. _'Jura has a killer figure and if you take away the attitude violet isn't so bad looking either.' _

''I must admit that was an adequate use of our off time.'' Meia admitted as she walked up to the blond after receiving a towel. ''Same time tomorrow?'' she asked as the blond nodded. After Meia left the crowd began to disperse and one thing came to Naruto's mind. He wondered where Dita was at?

Dita smiled as she placed the finishing touches on the gift she had been working on and planning to give to her Mr. Alien. It was a pink pillow with a picture of a cute green alien with tentacles. While she was busy Paiway watched with a bit of puzzlement.

"Hey, Are you giving that to a guy?" The precocious eleven-year-old nurse asked her friend.

The moment that came out of her friend's mouth, Dita blushed a bit as she thought about Naruto.

"Well if its not for someone, why not give it to me?" Paiway piped up hopefully.

Dita shook her head, while gleefully holding the present close to her chest. "No! I'm giving this to Naruto!"

Paiway frowned a bit. "Kero! Kero!"

Buzam was getting restless by the second, as there had been no alien attacks for some time, over the past few days. With the recent exception of Naruto's training session most of the crew found themselves constantly fighting boredom.

The first officer sighed, as sheer boredom threatened to overwhelm her. "Sheesh...it's a different affair, not having enemy attacks.''

"Since when have you fallen into the ranks of the military?" Magno remarked to her second in command.

"But the morale of the crew...''

"Our business is piracy, right?'' the captain cut her off.

"Well, that's true, but still…" The old woman waved of her second in command's response. She knew that the crew deserved this break from all of their constant battles.

Some time later, the happy-go-lucky girl entered the Hanger and went directly to where she knew Naruto could be found working. Her gift was clutched tightly to her chest. She was completely certain that the young Gundam pilot would love her new present for him. However, when she arrived to Virtue's paddock, she found no sign of the object of her growing affections. The cockpit of Virtue was open but it seemed that Naruto wasn't in the Hanger

Dita then looked up and about and began to look about in the paddock.

"Naruto! Naruto! Where are you?"

The young Mejare female looked about a bit more as she looked at Virtue.

Dita looked puzzled for a minute or two. "That's so strange. I was so sure that he was here working on his partner." She then decided to move around more so she could find Naruto, and left the Hanger. She decided to check his room as well; having no luck she decided to throw on a wrap and cleaning clothes as she decided to surprise the blond by having his room spotless when he returned. As she waited for what seemed like forever she added some more decorations, all alien in design strewn about his room. Exhausted, Dita decided to lay down and rest her eyes only to fall asleep.

After finally getting that shower Naruto arrived to his room. ''What the...'' he wondered as he looked at the various dolls strewn about his room. On his dresser was a red crabbed, a fungus looking creature, a yellow squid thing with small hollow black eyes, and an extremely coal black looking thing. Hanging from the ceiling were various planets and UFOs and sure enough on his bed was Dita. ''Hey.'' he gently prodded the red-head. ''Wake up. What's all this?'' he asked as Dita slowly stirred. She sat up and yawned after rubbing her eyes. A bright smile formed on her face upon seeing the blond.

''Welcome back!''

''Uum...what's going on?'' he asked as Dita brightened up and hopped out of his head.

''Look! Do you see! You think its cool right? All nice and neat!'' she said with a twirl.

''It's...'' he scratched his cheek, wracking his head for something to say. ''...unexpected?''

''Aah!'' she suddenly exclaimed as she spun and grabbed the pillow off his bed. ''Here!'' she said, presenting him the pillow.

Naruto blinked once. Then twice. And once more. It began with a very low snicker, then that snicker increased in volume as his nose twitched. His cheeks began to puff out along with his upper lip when he suddenly burst out laughing. The laughing got louder as he held his gut and almost doubled over in laughter.

''H-Hey!'' Dita cried out, her cheeks turning as scarlet as her hair. ''W-What's so funny?'' she asked, feeling rather self conscious right now.

Naruto only continued his fits of laughter.

''Y-You...you don't like it?'' she whimpered, tears threatening to fall which caused Naruto to cease his laughter.

''No, I mean yes...what I'm trying to say is that its thoughtful.'' he said, taking the pillow from her hands, before noticing the bandages.''Dita...what happened?'' he asked as Dita pulled away, massaging her fingers.

''I'm such a klutz.'' she said. ''Erza-chan taught me how to sew and stuff and I'm still no good at it.'' she admitted, chewing on her bottom lip.

''I like it.'' he said as he held it up and looked at the pillow. ''It beats laying on my hands thats for sure.'' he added as once more the happy and blissful expression returned to Dita's face. He then did something that surprised the both of them. He leaned over and kissed her cheek, unaware that once more the very nosy Paiway was doing a Pai-check for her collection of incriminating evidence.

_''Did you hear Merlot?'' _

Merlot was one of the Dread pirates chosen to be part of the Vanguard squadron. She had shown amazing promise. She was a Mejaran with long raven hair done in a ponytail that reached down her behind. She had rather pale skin and violet eyes. Among the space pirates her clothing was on the slightly less revealing side. She wore a black skirt with slits that came to her knees and a white sleeveless top with a black mini-coat over it. She also wore black knee-high boots with a black choker with a diamond in the middle and a violet head band along with black finger-less gloves that came to a stop a few inches short of her elbows. ''What is it now Vanilla?'' Merlot was one of the least excitable pirates and conducted herself in a calm fashion.

''Paiway said she saw the man kiss Dita. He kissed her!'' the other pilot exclaimed.

Merlot turned to the other girl in surprise. Her attention now taken away from heading to her room. ''This isn't another one of her silly rumors is it? Aglianico still refuses to go near Jello.''

''No its not, she says she has a picture.'' the two girls continued to converse, unaware that a certain someone overheard their conversation.

Meia now found herself in a rather unfamiliar situation. Her experience with interpersonal relationships wasn't the best, that much was sure. She was still rather unsure what the exact nature of her relationship with Naruto was. They were allies; and...friends? They were just friends so there was no reason for her to feel jealous that he and Dita were close. _'Aren't I the one he expresses interest in being around?' _The moment the thought of jealousy hit her mind, Meia wondered just where that thought have surfaced from? Naruto was just a friend. An ally and just because he came from a world of men and women didn't mean she was going to pursue that sort of thing. And she definitely wasn't going to ask him about it, no matter how curious she was. So there was no reason for her to care she decided as she decided to run some simulations to get her mind off what she learned.

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Chapter End  
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1. I think we all know that randomly replacing one main character with another is an often badly done idea if the previous main character just disappears and they are important to particular plot points. Especially when the replacement is far more powerful but is nerfed and is just as much as an idiot with romance as the person they replace.

I am Kyuubi16, as you can see my revisions have these main characters (unbashed to the best of my abilities) show up in one form or another. Unfortunately impatient ass-hats never want to wait and demand I give all the information and everything in the first chapter.

2. Akuryou- Means Demon Spirit or something. If not someone correct me as like a dumbass I erased it and a few other things before double checking.

3. The New OC pirate names are based off of wines. I got the idea after doing research on one of the character's names.


	11. Tensions Low and High Part 3

Gundread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

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Author's Note

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This chapter is dedicated to music and me rediscovering all my old favorite songs.

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Story Start

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Dita had found herself hiding in the bio park. After someone, she was pretty sure was Paiway leaked about what happened she found herself being mobbed by the rest of the crew with the exception of the more sensible pilots. They had bombarded her with all sorts of questions.

What was it like?

Wasn't she afraid of contamination?

Did he force himself on her? (Despite them being pretty unaware of the implications of the statement.)

So now she found herself hiding in one of the trees. Never had Dita met a situation where she was overwhelmed with questions and stuff and she did the only thing she could, run.

'_'Dita-san! Dita-san!''_

Dita's head shot up. ''Naruto!'' she called out to the blond who was wondering around.

''There you are.'' he said, looking up before his cheeks redden and he turned around.

''Huh? What's wrong?'' she asked, unaware that the way she was positioned gave Naruto a nice view up her skirt.

''N-Nothing.'' he said as he coughed into his closed fist. ''I've been looking all over for you. I take it you're hiding from the others huh?'' he asked, turning his head and she nodded. ''How long do you plan on staying up there?''

''I...err.'' she began poking her fingers together as her cheeks darkened. ''I can't get down.'' she sheepishly admitted. Naruto blinked a few times before once more burst out laughing outrageously within twenty-four hours. ''It's not funny! You meanie!'' Dita whined.

After helping Dita down, almost dropping her in the process from laughing so hard the two of them sat on a bench near a pool. ''Dita, I, think we should talk about your fascination with me.''

''Huh? What do you mean?'' she asked, giving him a puzzled look.

''Its about relations between men and women and my life style.''

Suffice to say while Dita had mixed feelings on learning about Naruto's relationship situation (and some confusion considering her own feelings), but his other stories had her asking multitudes of questions about him and his travels. During the conversation they found themselves becoming relaxed. Just being there, sitting their something warm and pleasant began to form. These feelings were of course more familiar to Naruto then Dita. That pull, that connection that compelled a smile on one's face.

As they continued to converse, neither noticed that they were edging closer to one another. Their eyes met and a spark of something occurred. His eyes went from her Maroon hair to her navy-baby blue eyes. They were cute and so fill of wonder and curiosity while Dita stared into Naruto's serene, yet full and experienced eyes. Deep within she could see something sorrowful and it reached out to her.

Both felt each other's warm and fresh breath tickle their skin, as Naruto found himself looking at Dita's lips, with her looking also at his own as they drew closer… and closer… until…he kissed her on her nose. He chuckled as she squeaked. Dita was innocent. And only someone who was scum would take advantage of a sweet if not a bit naive girl like her. ''Dita, I think you should join me, Barnette, and for training session? How does that sound?''

''Are you kidding? I think that's great!'' she said as she grabbed onto his arm and nuzzled against his shoulder. It was the next morning and the three Dread pilots were gathered in the middle of the training room on the opposite side of Naruto. Several of the other crew members threw away with the subtly and decided to sit in and watch the training session to sate their curiosity.

''Today its about loosening up. Going with the flow, some of us are good at it while others need some work.'' it was pretty obvious to Meia that he was referring to her? She was aware of her reputation of a hard ass. ''Strictness does has its benefits. Its a strong foundation for routine, dependability, and is a sign of a hard worker. Despite it that can also lead to someone to be uncompromising and rigid. We need someone who is a hard worker yet flexible to change things up and not to be predictable. That means doing things you usually wouldn't do, add some variety to your fighting style and how you act in general.'' when Naruto finished Meia relaxed slightly. So he wasn't taking a jab at her nature, just pointing out the positives and negatives of certain ways of thinking.

''Thankfully enough when my brother and some mechanics were tinkering around with Virtue he happened to left behind one of his CDs. Some nice songs; I'm telling you now the lyrics get a bit provocative at times but the beat is great. Its all about dancing and following said beat. If certain parties feel uncomfortable I won't force you to dance, but to observe and feel free to join in. The first song is Touch by an Artist by the name of Omarion.'' he said as he played the song.

He bobbed his head and tapped his foot once. Twice. Three times before he started singing along with it.

(First Part of Verse)

He began grooving his shoulders and doing similar leg and arms movements from the video. He slide across the floor with ease. Moving to the side using his legs and even going a spin.  
_  
_The women looked on in interest as they watched his music. The music was unlike anything they had ever heard nor were the movements. He was so fluid, like water and they were quite startled by the dance. They continued to watch as the performance, a few of them reacting and feeling quite flushed at some of the lyrics.

(Second Part)

When the song was over there were a mixed reactions. A few of the women felt slightly nauseated and insulted by what they felt was extremely inappropriate. Some were unsure what to feel while others like Dita (who was the most vocal) cheered after it was done. ''How are movements like that suppose to help? What practical reason would one have to move their body like that?'' Meia wondered.

''It's a form of expression or entertainment. I'm sure you know about videos and musical performances. From what I heard there this issues about how sexual and inappropriate some artist's material was. Honestly most of what I know I was exposed to by other people during my travels. I've always been curious as a child and since I was young I..._never had **time** for the things most kids my age did..._so I guess you can say I'm making up for lost time.'' he said with a grin. ''I know that it might be weird to you Meia-san, but its part of another culture. Trust me I had trouble wrapping my head around it as well. Now on to the next song, just close your eyes, listen, and do what your body tells you. ''

(I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper) (Instrumental) )

Naruto took a step back, closed his eyes and began taking in the music. He snapped his fingers before going to the left and then repeating the action and going to the right. He did this while humming the song. Feeling inspired Dita went over and with to his side. Enthralled she carefully watched him as she began mimicking his movements. Jura followed as well, being a great lover of things both beautiful and elegant it was almost expected she take to music as well. Despite giving it a try Meia could not connect to the music or feel any sort of vibe from it leaving her a bit annoyed.

Naruto then began the next song, which he explained was the instrumental version of the actual song.

(T-Pain-"Im Sprung" Instrumental With Hook )

At first Meia was having some trouble feel the flow of the song. Maybe because Jura took to singing the lyrics after the song played through the first time, but once the hook had passed Meia felt something. It took a few moments she was feeling it. Her mind began drifting off. Whatever it was the beat of this song felt more up-lifting then the previous one. When the song was over Meia opened her eyes in surprise. She couldn't help but wondered what happen? Normally she was tense, always guarded and ready but she was so unwounded that work was the farthest thing from her mind.

(Pretty Ricky-Your Body) First Part of song

Naruto nearly choked as Jura placed her leg in between his, her thigh rubbing against his crotch. Apparently the flirtatious woman decided to dance with him. Every time the woman had got close for comfort Naruto found himself flustered, something that she finally picked up on not too long ago and been using to tease and fluster him with. Well if she wanted a dance she was going to get a dance. He found his own thigh rubbing at the apex of hers, and marveled at how close she had pressed to him. Their limbs began to sway and flow together. Naruto forced himself to relax and the moment he loosened up, his movements grew carefree and sensual.

(Baby Blue's Part)

If it wasn't for the fact that Dita was shocked into a stupor she would have tried to interfere. Several others watched in curiosity, considering doing something similar later privately with their own lovers.

(The Chorus)

As he moved against Jura to the words, he couldn't help but grip her closer, enjoying the feel of her soft, curvaceous body against his. He felt compelled to fondle her form, sharing in her moment of just simply dancing, moving with her and cherishing the heat between them.

(Spectacular)

Despite being a bit vain Jura could be rather perceptive. She had slowly put two and two together from Naruto's own words and his behavior around women and realized the effect she and others were having on him. Instead of seeing him as a man, she began picturing her as an attractive woman she wouldn't mind seducing for a bit of fun and everything else fell into place. She rocked her ass against his hips, and Naruto couldn't help but drop his hands to grasp her hips, keeping her pinned against him as they moved against each other. Jura was so lost in the bliss, in enjoying the game that she had let go of her thoughts. Thoughts of combining with Naruto for her own self-satisfaction and even guilt of getting so intimately close with someone who wasn't Barnette. In fact both of them had been fighting a lot lately about the blonde's insistence on getting closer to the shinobi leading to them having relationship issues.

(Chorus)

He purred just loud enough for her to catch, dipping to her neck to nip gently. He wondered briefly if he had gone too far, stepped over boundaries he shouldn't have. She had gasped when he bit, but laughed, and he calmed.

(Slick'em)

There hands stretched out, moving against each other as fingers intertwined and came together like a snug bow as it came a rest over her midsection. He inhaled, taking in her scent as a growl was caught in the back of his throat. He was beginning to lose control and was on the verge of taking her right there.

''What the hell is going on?'' a voice demanded in outrage as the last verse began to play. The two distangle themselves from their dance as a fuming Barnette made her way towards Naruto with murderous eyes.

''Geeze Barnette we were having a bit of fun. Must you always be a party pooper?''

Naruto found himself tongue tied. Between his hormones and shocked at Jura's admission he found himself unable to say anything. Meia cursed herself, not realizing that if Barnette had stumbled upon such a scene she would blow a gasket. Barnette made it no secret that she had no love for men. And considering how aggressive the woman normally was it was within the realm of possibility she would attack Naruto. ''Pilot Orangello!''

Said pilot stopped in her tracks, recognizing Meia's authorative tone. ''I don't know what you have in mind, but any violent outbursts will not be tolerated.''

''Leader...but...that man,'' she growled.

''Despite how...inappropriate pilot's Uzumaki and Basil's actions were as this was suppose to be a training session the two of them are adults and I'm sure that such a thing won't occur again.''  
_  
''At least not publicly.'' _thankfully Naruto thought that statement instead of saying it. ''We'll cut today's session short.'' he said, his cock feeling rather rigid. At this rate if he didn't get sexual release soon he was going to develop blue balls. The venomous glance that Barnette shot him indicated that he was on the woman's shit list. Once again reactions were mixed with various results and rumors were flying back and forth. Slowly but surely the ship was becoming divided on two sides. One that found Naruto interesting and a welcome addition to the crew and the other half an usurper trying to stir discord and chaos amongst the crew.

''That was foolish! I thought you of all people would have considered your actions more.''

Naruto sighed, looking up down from the wall to Meia who has standing in his doorway. ''Meia-san, I'm not going to lie or make excuses. I am attracted to Jura-san and my attraction override my common sense. If problems occur I accept responsibility.'' he obliged and Meia nodded.

''Pilot Orangello like myself at one time distaste you. As you brought up we can not afford to have issues amongst our pilots, we must separate our personal business form our duty.'' she lectured the blond who sat up and swung his legs around to the side of the bunk.

''I know Meia-san, and I don't have anything against her; forcing her to work with me probably isn't going to cut it either. I can try talking with her, but I doubt it'll do much good until she calms down.''

''All I can say is not to let your attraction to Jura affect your judgement or what happens with this crew; not to mention the fact that Dita is fond of you as well, or does how she feel not enter the equation?'' she pressed.

''Meia-san, I am not so callous to dismiss her feelings. I'm attracted to Dita-san and you as well.''

Meia's eyes widened._ 'H-He's...attracted to me?'_

''Look, in the culture I'm from monogamous relationships are as normal as the relationships you are aware of; which in fact in my culture such relationships are described with the term homosexual and such couples are discriminated against. Well women couples aren't discriminated against as much as male homosexual couples though they aren't the only relationship types. I and members of my family partake in a type of relationship with multiple partners. I am with many women and the reverse goes for one of my female relatives. In this case the females in this type of relationship are more heavily discriminated against.'' he continued on, explaining to Meia a bit more how things in back in his world worked. She was silent for the most part, taking in what she had learned and trying to make sense of everything she was learning. After a long, rather uncomfortable silence she decided she needed some time to process everything she learned.


	12. A New Mystery and Con Man

Gundread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

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Author's Note

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If there is one thing some authors like me hate, it's when you people tell us not to do so and so with pairings. You know what? Write your own damn story if you want certain pairings. There is nothing more fucking annoying then settling on an idea and people trying to tell us to do it another way. If I want your opinion on something readers, I will ask. I do a lot in other stories so if I want it here, I will ask.

I'm not trying to be an ass-hole, but nothing pisses me off then people telling me you can't do this or that. It's a fictional fucking story. You can have leeway, its fanfiction not an actual novel. So please, be courteous and ask questions or if you suggest something, make it a question, don't just tell me what to write in my story.

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Story Start

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_''Don't worry about Barnette. We had a little squabble but honestly what couple doesn't? Now about you and me combining.''_

Naruto shook his head as he recalled Jura's statement. Despite her attempts to play it off, his ears picked up something more than a 'little squabble' so to speak. Jura's rather one track mind was beginning to wear the blond down. She wasn't the only one as Dita was also doubling her efforts to spend as much time as she could with him. ''You have no idea how good it feels to get that off my chest.'' one of the female pirates told him. Apparently she had held in all these insecurities and she figured that he, a man, wouldn't judge her if she confessed her insecurities. She was so blissfully unaware.

_'Not as good as it would be for me to get off on your chest._' the blond thought. It was safe to say the last few weeks were hell on his hormones. When he received a call to the bridge he let out a sigh of relief. That relief didn't last when it turns out another mission was about to start.

One revolving around a rather old space station. This one appeared abandoned and that meant salvage operation. The usual crew was sent on-board the mission.

Meia was busy working as she removed components from a computer console in the station's main memory storage system. Floating nearby was Pyoro. Like always he was being a smart-ass little nuisance, bringing up the fact that Meia was looting, even though she insisted she was just salvaging.

The sound of something moving above caught Naruto's attention. His pliers in hand he stopped what he was doing as his eyes went up to the rafters above. ''Naruto?'' Dita asked with a quizzical look. ''What's wrong?''

''Wait right here. I'll be back,'' he said as he placed the tool in Dita's hand. He began walking around the hallway when his ears picked up something. Movement. ''There!'' he said as his hand quickly shot into his kunai pouch, drew back and let the kunai fly. Leaping up to the support beam he went to where the kunai bounce off. He ran his fingers over the area and picked up something. ''A hair.'' he mumbled as he picked it up and inhaled its scent. ''A living creature, it's rather familiar. Damn, can't quite make it out though.'' he said as he dropped down again. Something in the shadows moved again, this time definitely catching his attention.

''Right there!" he decided as he shot towards where the shadow was. The noise and havoc, mainly Pyoro screaming which gained the pirate's attention. "ACK! HELP! NARUTO! HELP ME!"

Naruto would have helped, but he was far too busy laughing his ass off. An orangutan. A freaking orangutan wearing something resembling a white dress along with cloth boots and gloves as grabbed Pyoro and began licking him affectionately like he was her baby. He supposed he should that a random fucking orangutan had appearing should have been alarming, but then again shit like that didn't surprise him. His laughter was cut off as he sensed another presence. He turned, his hand curved out and facing upwards in preparation for a Rasengan and that's when he saw him.

The man was tall, noticeably taller than Naruto and was well-built in a matter efficient to a normal human being. He wore a kind of technological eye-patch over his right eye and there were two green stripes of face paint on his left cheek. He had dark brown hair slicked back with one long tress out in front, just above a green jewel on his forehead. He wore a set of clothes that were similar to the shamans of some of the worlds he visited. The man quickly drew his weapon and trained it on Naruto.

''Well thanks a lot ass-hole,'' the blond stated with a scowl. ''I was finally going to beat my record of not having someone point a weapon at me in twenty-four hours time for once.''

''Naruto! What's going on? Who's that with you!'' Dita cried out as she ran down the hallway.

Naruto noticed the man's eyes narrow. The man moved quick, but Naruto was quicker. He was at Dita's side in the instant, throwing himself between the two before the girl could be used as a hostage.

''Freeze!'' Meia commanded as she pointed her weapon at the man's bag.

The man craned his head. ''Another woman?''

''Yeah and?'' she challenged as the man chuckled.

''It's my policy to never kill women! Though that does allow me to do this!'' he said, firing his weapon at Naruto forcing the blond to move him and Dita out-of-the-way. The man moved to the side, narrowly avoiding a fire from Meia's ring weapon and was about to counter when his weapon was knocked off target by Jura's saber.

''So our troublemaker is a man?'' Jura prompted.

''Seems like it!'' Barnette added as she took the gun from the man.

''Are you thugs or something?'' the man prompted.

''We prefer to be called Pirates.'' Jura corrected.

''Oh,'' he answered with a hint of amusement.

''We really don't have time for this.'' Naruto brought up. He was just able to avoid a Javelin as it skinned his face, drawing blood.

''Naruto!'' Dita cried out. This momentary distraction gave the man all the time he needed to break away. Taking Pyoro from the Orangutan's hands he let it fly. It nailed Meia in the arm causing her to stumble back and fall from the force of the blow.

"Leader!" Dita cried as she checked on Meia.

The Orangutang tackled Barnette, causing her to drop her gun. Jura pressed the attack, slashing with her saber she missed as the man dodged the strike by bending back under the strike. Jura was about to press her attack when another javelin came flying.

''Look out,'' Naruto said as he pushed Jura out-of-the-way and against the wall. A humanoid image soon appeared from the shadows. It had demonic inverted teeth with black eyes and ashen skin. It didn't bear any clothing or indication of sex with its warped features, but in each of its four arms it bore a sphere.

''By Grand-ma what on earth is that hideous thing?'' Jura exclaimed. She backed away, fear evident on her face.

A massive explosion rocked the creature let out a growl as it faded back into the shadows.

''No time to worry. Back to the ship!'' Meia ordered. On the outside of the Mission parts of a brown shell cracked, revealing Cube fighters. The mission began to come to life and arm itself for battle. With the supplies they managed to gather the group back to their ships. Whoever that mysterious man was or why he was there would have to wait until the enemy had been taken care of. Naruto flew forward, slashing Cube after cube with his beam saber while Meia covered him from laser fire with her Dread.

''Something's not right. Where's the enemy's squad leader? Why are they just using the cubes?'' Naruto wondered as several of the enemy units turned from the Dreads and began converging on to his position. He continued, slashing more and more of them.

It was then that Jura's Dread came beside him and the young man groaned as he saw the seductive blonde giving him another hungry look.

"Well? Are you ready to combine now?" Jura asked, still smiling as she jetted forward to him and Virture.

''For heaven's sake. Really? Really? I swear you and Dita put most teenage boys pestering their girlfriends to give them some to shame. What part of I'm not ready do you not...'' Naruto paused in mid rant. A realization struck him as he gasped in horror. It had finally happened. He had gone insane. While there was no questions to his sexuality if his latest dream was any indication. And really, could his dream have gotten any better than Dita, Jura, and Meia in a hot tub? Without a doubt he had gone insane. Definitely unobservant as suddenly Dita ran into him, resulting in them combining.

''Dita you'll pay for that!'' Jura raged as the two began their bickering.

_'Screw this. I'm educating the both of them on men and women's relations. Either I'm going to get lucky and get laid or they'll back off and I won't die from heart failure as a result of over sexual stimulation.' _he concluded. At this point the rivalry between Dita and Jura was getting out of hand. They seemed more focus on out doing each other and combining with him then worrying about the damn enemies trying to harvest their organs. With nothing but basic cubes the enemies were quickly made short work of.

Rabat's jaw dropped to the flat of his console after what he had seen. The entire time he and his Orangutan Utan were witnessing the battle, hoping to salvage what was left over. He grinned, greedy ambitions filling his mind at the thought of getting his hand on such a machine. ''Go for it Utan!'' he indulged the pleading creature who happily got into the seat of the mounted gun weapon to retaliate against the surviving cubes that began attacking them.

The mecha unleashed a murderous barrage of missiles, bullets, cannon, and laser shots at the remaining swarms of alien fighters. The simian carelessly blasted away at their formations, shooting anything in sight and turning the enemy fighters to junk. Utan gave a happy and content sigh as the mecha's arms lowered after finishing destroying the cubes.

A few minutes later, Magno watched as the bridge crew got into contact with the new ship as she came face to face with Rabat on the monitor. Beside her were the salvage team. ''It's a shame all that good salvage went to waste.'' the man said, indicating the mission was a failure as a result of the battle. ''I showed a bit of pity and my engines get damaged. A little compensation for my troubles.'' the man who introduced himself as Rabat stated.

That tone didn't suit well to Magno. "Who do you think you're talking to?" She asked. ''We're pirates!''

''Oh, I see.'' Rabat answered in a-matter-of-fact tone. Rabat smirked while shrugging, then held up something. "Then you don't mind leaving this behind?''

''Shit,'' Naruto swore and turned to the captain. ''Obaa-chan, I know that little bot can be annoying, but it's absolutely apparent I get him back. I...I stored irreplaceable data in him when I was pressed for time weeks ago. Under any other situation I wouldn't settle for such a deal, but the information stored can not be replaced.''

Magno sighed a bit as she nodded. "I guess we have no choice." She then addressed Rabat. "Come aboard.'' she said and the feed was cut.

''Is this wise captain?'' B.C. wondered.

''Pyoro is apart of this crew as well.'' a smirk formed on Magno's face. ''And if he does anything we'll just strip him of everything.''

In the cargo crew nearly everyone had gathered. Most of the crew had their weapons ready. Naruto watched as the man was rather shameless with his charm. He apparently rubbing Jura the wrong wave who loved and craved attention. Naruto kept a close eye on the man, watching as Meia escorted the man to where the Captain was. It didn't take long for the man began working the trade. Between selling cheap, glittery jewelery and more than hinting at being aware of the relationship between men and women.

''Being passive isn't like you.'' Duero noted. Naruto had taken to hanging out with Duero seeing as he was the only other man on the ship (Bart didn't count as far as Naruto was concerned). While the doctor was rather passive and quiet for the most part he was pretty sensible.

''I'm not sure how to approach the situation. On one hand I suppose this proves the pirates are starting to trust that not all men are the evil monsters of Meljaran Fairy tales, although they're trusting someone who is obviously no good. Until he does something I can't act without them assuming I'm being petty or jealous.''

''Hhm...'' Duero said as he took a sip of his coffee. ''In other words unless Miss Dita, Miss Jura, or Miss Meia get involved you plan to stay on the sidelines.''

''H-Hey. What are you going on about?'' Naruto angrily asked, his face turning red at the doctor's insinuations.

''Nothing, just an observation.'' the doctor said. ''But you're right, until that man commits a crime against us its best not to trouble the captain with such matters.''

Naruto snorted, ''Oh...and I suppose you don't care that even Parfet seems taken by him? He offered her some sort of power coupling and she offered to use free samples of make-up?''

An unamused look formed on Duero's face. ''If you excuse me I have to go talk to the captain about...certain concerns. Our guest's companion, could have some sort of germs which could have passed on to him meaning the only way to assure the safety of the crew is to lock a...quarantine them.'' the doctor said as he excused himself.

''Or was it Paiway who was doing the sample packs?'' Naruto wondered. He wouldn't be left to his thoughts for long as Meia entered. ''Meia-san,'' he greeted her.

''Naruto...'' a frown formed on her face. ''I don't trust him.'' she simply said.

''Me neither.'' he replied. ''For someone we just happened to run into he's been rather calm about this whole thing. I can read people and he's definitely hiding something.''

She nodded. ''I can't believe the others are fawning over him. At the very least they should show some pride.''

''For now we should keep our eyes and ears open.''

Rabat shook himself a bit as he arrived into the hanger where the three Dreads, Gundam, and Vanguards were housed. He had just met BC as he went to check the place where his ship was. Though the first officer was very attractive, there seemed to be something about her that was…off. He was hoping his bluff of being able to fix his ship faster than expected work. Either way, the smell of gun powder on her indicating she was a woman who knew her way around a weapon and wouldn't fall so easily to her charms.

''Wow, it's looking great!'' Parfait said as the Paeksis seem to flicker to life. The Tech just smiled as she went back to helping out in adjusting wavelengths.

"Looks like things are going well." Rabat chirped, walking into the engineering room. The women gave him an odd expression that he couldn't read, but he didn't really care either way. "My Merchandise does exactly what I said, right?" He asked, he said as he turned to the object. '_This Paeksis...is...could...'_

"Oh, Mr. Storekeeper!" Dita sang happily.

Rabat grinned as he walked over to the teen. "Hey, you've gotten all dressy.'' he said, noticing that Dita like most of the others was using his products. ''You look loads better now?''

''You think so?'' she bashfully replied, thinking about Naruto's reaction to her appearance.

''So, what do you want now? I can take additional orders.''

''I want to here stories. About space. And men and women living together.''

In Mango's private quarters she and B.C. were discussing what to do with the man, the former using Tarot cards. There were many thoughts flowing back and forth, the one being heavily weighed was the one about him being an enemy spy. While they were close it was no cigar.

''No way!'' Dita fiercely argued, shaking her head. ''Naruto's valuable partner. I won't let you get any closer.'' she said, barring his path outstretched arms.

"I just want a small peak." Rabat said in his smoothest tone.

Dita knew how valuable that Virtue was to Naruto. He didn't allow anyone else to work on or even touch it. He treated it like it was a living thing and that awed Dita. That kindness of his was the reason she liked Naruto so much.

Rabat's patience was wearing thin. ''Move.'' he simply ordered, pushing her to the side. He didn't have time to waste around. The more he fooled around the more his chances lessened. ''Move girl,'' he threw his arm out, shaking off the persitent red-head that grabbed his arm. He had put too much force in the gesture sending her flying back over the edge. ''Shit!'' he swore as he rushed over to the side but it was too late.

Dita closed her eyes and waited for the impact that never came. She suddenly came to a stop when a pair of strong arms caught her. She opened her eyes and looked at her savor. ''I swear Dita this ship doesn't need two danger magnets.''

''Naruto, you came!'' she threw her arms around his neck and held her tight.

Naruto though, was far too furious to be effected by the hug. That damn con artist could have hurt or even killed Dita because of his carelessness. ''I knew you were up to no good. This just proves it. One way or another you're going to leave this ship.''

''I wouldn't do that if I were you kid. You'll lose your only chance to find out information on the enemy you've been fighting.'' he bartered. Whoever the blond was he had super human ability, that much Rabat saw so he needed to play it smart.

Naruto merely smirked. ''Only one problem. That only works when the person isn't capable of ripping the information from your mind.'' the blond said as he set Dita down. ''Get out of here Dita. I don't want you to see this.''

''But Naruto.'' she began arguing.

''Just go! I'll be okay.'' he said as Dita was about to argue but she ran off in the opposite direction to go get the others. ''Now to take care of you.'' the blond said as Rabat made the first move. Naruto merely cocked his head to the side as the fist met with air. He followed by shifting his weight to the left and launched out with a right knee strike, fully expecting it to collide into Naruto's chest but it was stopped by the blond's hand.

Naruto countered using his hard head to headbutt Rabat, causing the man to stumble back and clutched his face in pain. ''Utan!'' he called for the creature. The large female Orangutan jumped down from above only to be met with an elbow right between the eyes. The force of the blow rendered the creature unconscious.

Like clockwork Rabat would swing his fist, but Naruto would just move away. The blond was like the second hand, always moving while Rabat was the minute hand slowly moving to catch up. ''Stop running and fight like a man. Or is spending all this time around nothing but women has made you a coward who can only dodge?'

''Trying to piss me off with insults so I'll be sloppy. No, foolish. I won't allow someone like you to continue to do as he pleases. Trying to take advantage the members of the crew. Disgusting, I was hoping they wised up to your cons but one can't have everything. No matter what happens I'll protect everyone on this crew with my life. That's what it means to be a man.'' Naruto said as he appeared behind the man. Rabat than let out a scream as his arm and legs sleeve exploded and it felt like his limbs were on fire. He collapsed unto an unconscious heep. By this time several crew members of the Nirvana arrived on the scene, including Meia, Jura, Barnette, Duero, Bart and several other pirates. They were all surprised by how effortlessly Naruto defeated the man who looked more physically intimidating then him. It was one thing for someone to boast their fighting ability and another to see it in action.

''Was it really wise? To let that man go?'' Meia approached Naruto who watching the stars from the bench in the bio park.

''I couldn't discover any information in his mind. There was some sort of block. Something strong enough to block my techniques and troubled me. So I decided to imprint a seal, a sleeper cell sort of program. If he was supposed to be a spy from the enemy then they failed and now he's going to be a spy for us. I altered his memories quite a bit. I approached the captain with this idea earlier and this is why we didn't pursue that man. That and on the side of caution Parfait was ordered to check Rabat's so called hardware. Further study proves the power coupling is defective.'' he explained, not once looking away from the stars. ''Do the others, are they...''

''No...'' Meia answered him with a head shake. ''They will always view_ 'men' _as the enemy to a certain extent. You on the other hand are an ally and friend. You saved Dita from harm and the conviction behind your words showed just what kind of person you are. Get some sleep Uzumaki. We're going to have to prepare for another salvaging mission considering the disaster that was today's mission.'' she said and walked away.

Naruto nodded, thoughts feeling his head. What the hell was that strange creature? What was that block? Either way he was going to have to deal with his problems one at a time. First thing first was finding time to talk with Dita and Jura and get his and their feelings out in the open. Only once that was settled could the other things be focused on.


	13. The Stonewall

Gundread Kitsune

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Naruto x Harem

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''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

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Author's Note

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If there is one thing some authors like me hate, its when you people tell us not to do so and so with pairings. You know what? Write your own damn story if you want certain pairings. There is nothing more fucking annoying then settling on an idea and people trying to tell us to do it another way. If I want your opinion on something readers, I will ask. I do quite a lot in other stories so if I want it here, I will ask.

I'm not trying to be an ass-hole, but nothing pisses me off then people telling me you can't do this or that. Its a fictional fucking story. You can have leeway, its fanfiction not an actual novel. So please, be courteous and ask questions or if you suggest something, make it a question, don't just tell me what to write in my own story.

Anyway introduction of the Burst Mode concepts. Yes, the Paeksis are connected to Spiral Energy (Lagaan Guran) and its the reason why the machines on both sides keep involving. Just moving through all the old concepts because once season two rolls around all the old forms will be upgraded and the basic forms will just be skipped all together.

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Story Start

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''Shit! This isn't good!'' Naruto swore as Gundread Meia was sent hurling back. The enemy's new speed type underwent another upgrade. Whenever they tried to use their piercing attack a barrier would pop up. Any time they tried to attack they were merely deflected and both Dita and Jura's Dreads had taken heavy damage and needed to be called back to the Vandread for maintenance. Gundread Meia dodged out of the way as one of the Sea Urchin's attempted to ran into it.

The Vanguard squadron flew into position as several Dreads fired at the creature. The ship attempted to retaliated only for the Vanguards to flank it. Their blades tearing into the Urchin from four different sides. The ship soon exploded from the damage. The Vanguards were forced to flee back as a squadron of cubes came flying at them.

''Damn! Nothing we throw at the enemy is working. There must be something.'' Naruto said as he looked around the console.

''If you have a trick up your sleeve Uzumaki now would be a good time.'' Meia said as enemy laser fire impacted against the machine causing her to crash forward into Naruto.

''I was going to ask you the same thing.'' he said as he tried to find anything on the console that could help. ''Wait,'' he said as he recognized an arrangement of weapons. ''Virtue's has an ability called Burst Mode. It'll increase our abilities several fold, but it'll burn through our energy reserves quickly. We're going to have to pierce through the enemy's shield in one strike. I'm going to activate it while you maneuver us into a position to attack.'' the blond stated as Meia nodded. ''Here we go.'' he said as he activated the burst system. Suddenly a blinding light filled the cockpit causing them both to shield their eyes. The bright light enveloped the GunDread causing the enemy to stop and observe.

The machine began to configure itself into a more humanoid shape. Its claw like appendages stretched out and moved and shaped itself into feet. Its body also shaped into a humanoid shape, forming a slender silver and white frame. The thrusters moved in arrangement and the outer shells of it exploded to reveal six seraph wings. ''Or we could go with this.'' Naruto stated. The speedy enemy's ship was about to run into them when Naruto reacted by drawing out a beam saber. Thank god it was adjusted in the same place as it usually was on Virtue.

''These controls.'' Meia said, recognizing a particular set of controls. ''Its the same as the Silver-wing attack.'' she said as the blond turned to her with smirk. 'Care to do the honors?' he asked. Meia hhmped and merely activated the control. Power began channeling from the now glowing wings as it fed into the beam saber. Moving the saber to the side it was tightly gripped in both hands. The beam extended and exploded to energy with a dark red glow.

The enemy ships all began to converge on the spot of the transformed GunDread. ''Now!'' they shouted as the machine shot forward with breakneck speed. Both were sent hurling back in their seats as the machine shot beam met with the enemy's shield as energy feedback echoed for a few seconds before the saber cut through, severing the creature in half and every cube enemy flanking behind it. The Gundread separated and the duo returned to the Nirvana where they were flanked and congratulated by the rest of the crew. Well nearly everyone; Jura couldn't help but feel jealous and in a little disbelief. It felt like a slap in the face; the silver Gundread had another form? Another form? She decided that she was going to combine with Naruto even if it killed her.

With the enemies cleared, they were finally able to monitor the planet that they seemed to be guarding. The Nirvana's main monitor displayed a new planet with a surface almost entirely covered with water. The captain and her first officer were busy reading the data of the new planet they had arrived to on their way back home to Megele and Talark.

"This is a marine planet with 99% of its mass covered with water. Atmosphere consists entirely of oxygen and'' Buzam stated as the images began to focus on something resembling an island. "The conditions for human life are met here. We are detecting a small city on the island along with the remains of a colony ship underwater. It appears that the inhabitants are humanoid. The remains of a colonization ship is on the ocean floor."

Magno nodded as she considered their current options for the world below. "I guess we'll go say hello to our allies?"

BC couldn't answer that question as the alarms were activated as Ezra announced the presence of unknown ships nearby.

"Enemy on the other side of the planet!"

Bart appeared on the screen. '_'L-Let's run for it!''_ he exclaimed.

He was promptly annoyed as the feed was cut. "Erza, how many?'' Buzam asked the young pregnant woman.

"A dozen or so cube types. A-And, there's one large ship, some sort of strange contraption.''

Coming out from the planet's shadow, was an alien vessel close to the size of the Nirvana. It resembled a tulip with a stem. Buzzing all over its surface were Cube Fighters. The call for all the pilots to return their ships was put through over the speaker. ''Shit...at this rate we're going to run out of supplies.'' Naruto grumbled. Virtue had a little less then ten percent missile reserves yet and forty percent thruster fuel. The Dreads of course had more then enough supplies to keep them going for a few more weeks but his machine and the Vanguards were not so lucky in that accommodation. That was the very reason why fusion mechanic was being used so often. Both his Gundread combinations with Meia and Dita's special attack didn't use up too much of his weaponry.

As he shot down a corridor he was greeted by a large flash of light, blinding him terribly. ''HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

The shrill laughter sent a shiver down his spine as he saw the curvaceous silhouette of a certain Dread pilot. Behind Jura was none other than Barnette, who happened to be recording the whole scene via camcorder. Apparently the two of them set the strobe lights in advance for this occasion, as they knew that he would be heading for the nearest route to the Hanger from his quarters.

''So, it's finally here.'' she pointed at him. ''Listen, today...''

''Yeah, okay, combine, whatever, let's go!'' he hastily remarked as he continued stumbling forward and passed them.

''H-Hey!'' Jura cried out. ''I had a whole speech planned. What kind of person doesn't let a lady finish!'' she demanded in outrage.

''The same kind of lady that blind's peo...'' Naruto ran into one the ship's walls. Damn blindness. Damn crazy women. Damn Hormones. Damn blindness. Naruto was sure he was going to need a whole bottle of prozac and a few other things before the day was over. Thankfully enough Naruto was able to make it to the hanger.

Virtue was launched and Naruto went straight out into the heart of the enemy forces. He began firing with his Vulcan canon. Drawing his beam sabre he began going on the offensive when something surprising happen. The Cube Fighters dodging his strikes. ''Shit! Has the enemy decided to improve the capabilities of their existing models?'' he wondered.

"Well? Wanna combine now?" Jura said with a smug tone.

Naruto managed to block a round from another Cube Fighter with his shield.

"Naruto! Watch out!" He was about to take out his unwanted sniper when he spotted it being turned into junk by Dita's Dread fighter.

Dita's fighter arrived and took down the alien attacker with several well-aimed shots before it could attack Virtue a second time.

The younger pilot blew Naruto a kiss from her cockpit. "If you're going to combine, do it with me, okay?"

Naruto groaned as he finally realized what he had forgotten to do yesterday. He was so busy going through his scrolls, looking up and researching that strange creature he saw with the con man he forgot to take Dita and Jura aside to set them straight on their behavior. When this battle was over he was going to. No excuses, no procrastinating and no bullshit. For heaven's sake there was no reason for him not to so. He should have been more then used to this sort of thing by now, shouldn't he? Suddenly he picked up something on his systems. ''What the hell?'' the charts were reading an energy signature of incredible power. Whatever it was it was moving fast, too fast. Before he could react the beam slammed into him full force, sending him and dozen of cubes towards the surface of the planet.

"Naruto!" Dita cried as she tried to reach Naruto to assist him out of this mess, but several fighters from the alien ship appeared and kept both her and Meia from coming to aid the shinobi and his Gundam unit. Only one Dread Fighter was able to pierce the defensive forces of the alien units and dove towards the Gundam.

Since Dreads were never intended for atmospheric flight, Jura knew that she was taking a risk that could kill her and her Dread. She however showed no concern as she plunged deeper to her intended target in the hope combining into something elegant as well. "Barnette! Is the camera rolling?''

"Is this really the time?" Barnette remarked.

The blonde pilot's gaze was fixed solely on Naruto as she got closer to the Gundam. Jura cackled. ''Just Watch! The Third Stage is starting!'' Just before the Gundam and Dread hit the planet's ocean they were enveloped in a flash of bright light. Once hitting this surface with a tremendous impact, a massive geyser spurted as a massive shock waves spread out in all directions for miles.

Back at the Nirvana's bridge. "They've landed in the water near city." Ezra reported as she got the calculations right on the location of the impact zone.

"Jura! Naruto! Are you all right? Respond!" Buzam called out to the said individuals through the communications systems. However she got no response from the two. Then, it happened.

''Jura, it can't be...'' Barnette softly stated as the worst scenario came to mind.

''What? What happened?'' Dita cried out, panicking as well.

Suddenly the ocean's settling surface exploded once more as several objects burst out like rockets fired off a launching pad. There were eight large discs that were gravity-repulsor type discs, which rotated around the area where Naruto and Jura had landed. Then something massive began to surface. The newly formed Gundread had two massive limbs were extended forward in the shape of pincers and wing-like projections on each side. Out on the front of this new machine was another repulsor disc, far larger than the other eight that surrounded the newly conceived machine. The aft sections were also raised and the circle of discs rotated vertically in front of the new machine. All in all, the GunDread looked like a huge crab.

"Another new one came out.'' Magno said as she and the rest of the crew from the bridge all the way to the engineering section all saw GunDread Jura on the Nirvana's main monitor.

''However, thats...'' B.C. trailed off. She could only picture the vain pilot's complaint.

''Crab.'' Beldevere finish with a deadpan.

Out on board her Dread; Barnette was also staring on her monitor. Jura wasn't going to be happy at this. Still, she brought out her camcorder and began to film.

"N-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! THIS CAN'T BE MINE!" The blonde Dread pilot screamed in despair as she saw through a monitor as what her Dread had become. She then started to become hysterical.

''What the hell? What kind of configuration is this?'' he wondered as enemy cubes began to surround the new GunDread and began firing. He ignored Jura's complaints as he looked around the cockpit. Unlike the other more 'intimate' seating he and Jura were in separate seats and were opposite of each other. Between them was a console, which was round, and there was a holographic projection globe. All things considered it was pretty damn ironic. ''Why won't this damn thing move?'' Naruto shouted as the enemy continued to fire on them. ''Jura-san, if you would kindly help me in preventing us from, you know, BEING BLOWN TO SHIT I WOULD KINDLY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP!'' he was at leas thankful that the hull of the machine was pretty thick. Even after minutes of concentrated fire there was only hints of minimal damage.

In a fit of frustration, anguish, and disgust Jura slapped her hands on the console. In doing so, so activated a control button, which caused the GunDread to fire its maneuvering thrusters in full blast. The craft suddenly rocketed backwards, leaving behind a massive jet wash, which coupled with water, swamped several of the Cube Fighters behind it.

"This doesn't look good." BC said as she watched the direction where Naruto and Jura's machine were heading. "They're heading towards the Ocean City.''

"What about Dita and Meia?" Magno asked, though she also knew the risks involved should they too join in the battle.

Ezra shook her head as she checked her monitors. "They're still engaging the enemy in orbit."

Down below the situation was not improving. Naruto found that he and Jura could be rotated around the cockpit, but no matter what he tried didn't help. The fact he was unable to find his weapon and Jura's growing hysteria was not helping at all. ''Don't tell me this fusion type is an unorthodox type?''

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH! LET ME OFF!''

''WHY DON'T YOU ACTUALLY TRY HELPING! YOU'VE BEEN BUGGING ME ABOUT THIS DAMN FUSION THING FOR WEEKS! YOU'VE GOT YOUR WISH NOW HELP ME OUT!''

''B-BUT THIS FORM IS HIDEOUS! IT'S NOT ELEGANT AT ALL! WHY! WHY DID IT TURN OUT THIS WAY!''

''WELL WE'LL BE GETTING AN ELEGANT DEATH IF I DON'T FIND A MEANS TO FIGHT BACK!''

The GunDread suddenly stopped before it could impact the island colony. Naruto spotted a control level on the right side of his chair.

He thought as grasped it firmly and pushed it forward. The arms of the GunDread immediately lashed out like whips and smashed two Cube Fighters into junk as the exploded.

Naruto thought as he tried once more to try and swat the damned alien fighters, but these were smart enough to stay a good distance from the GunDread and bombard it from a distance. Seeing that this mode of fighting wasn't getting anywhere fast, the male pilot of GunDread Jura looked further for other weapons.

"What is this? IT LOOKS HORRIBLE!''

''WILL YOU QUIET DOWN!''In frustration, Naruto slammed his hands on a button which he never pressed before. Finally a weapon system of some sorts was activated. The discs that had done nothing but rotate in front of the machine suddenly flew up to hover horizontally above the GunDread. The largest of the disc flew up to hover above its eight counterparts. It then unleashed eight beams of destructive energy that immediately were absorbed into the smaller discs. Then the circle of discs unleashed the beams in eight different directions, atomizing the remaining Cube Fighters.

Naruto sighed a bit as leaned back to his chair. "Thank heavens.'' Jura said nothing, as she silently stared at nothing in particular.

As soon as Meia and her Dread teams had dispatched the remaining Cube Fighters still in space, they returned to the Nirvana. The enemy's other ship continued to hover around the planet, paying no mind to the Nirvana for the time being.

Meanwhile back with the Gundread Naruto was still trying to find out the controls of the thing when suddenly Barnette appeared on the screen.

"I saw your elegance! I have it perfectly stored on film." Barnette said excitedly as she got into contact with the GunDread.

Jura however, wasn't even paying any attention as she and Naruto sat in the floating machine. ''Jura! Hello! Can you hear me? Answer me!'' as that was going on Magno was informed by Erza that communications to the planet's only city was possible. ''We've established communications.''

''Put them on monitor.''

In fact, the inhabitants were hailing them already. When the main monitor came online, Magno found herself being addressed by the city's leader, a a young woman in her early twenties with long blonde hair and had a face that would have fit the description of angelic perfectly. She wore robes made of lavender cloth and seemed to have a white mask hanging near her on a chain around her neck."Hello. My name is Fanieta. Welcome to Anpathos, the most beautiful planet in the universe."

"Anpathos? Is that your planet's name?" Magno asked as she gazed at the city's leader.

"That is correct. This is what we have been calling it. We've been waiting a long time.''

This got the attention and curiosity of Buzam. "Waiting?''

"You must be the Munya.'' Fanieta inquired.

Magno and BC looked at each other with puzzled and confused expressions, before Magno addressed the young woman again. "Unfortunately, we aren't this so called Munya. I'm sorry but can we come down there? I have a lot of things I want to ask you.''

''The time of our ceremony is approaching so we can not greet you well, but...''

''I don't mind.'' the captain answered as she opened a link to Bart. ''Bart, can you hear me? We are going down to the planet.''

''Oh, yeah sure.'' the navigator reluctantly replied.

''I'm going to leave things to you. So take care of the ship while we're gone.''

''Are you serious?'' he exclaimed in disbelief.

''Oh, and one more thing. You can't runaway from us.'' she reminded him before cutting the feed. After leaving Bart in command of the Nirvana, , Magno and BC got onto a transport shuttle and headed to the surface of Anpathos, and it's only city.

Back with Naruto he was doing his best to try and get a reaction out of Jura. Though she seemed intent on sulking on the back of her Dread.

The whole population of Anpathos seemed to be in a hurry to start some sort of festival. Though the crew members on the surface of the planet were able to pick up on something. The image of the city's flag being quite familiar.

Meanwhile in the Nirvana's Hanger deck. ''Naruto, and Jura. I wonder what they're doing all alone?" Dita was pacing the floor of the hanger back and forth as she began to imagine what could be happening down at the planet's surface, and what was happening to Naruto in particular.

"Why don't you calm down a bit." Meia said as she watched the young pilot pace back and forth.

''But he's all alone with Jura.'' Dita pointed out.

''The Captain and Vice-Captain are there too.'' she added.

''But...''she said as she directed her attention to a nearby porthole and looked towards the surface of the planet below them.

"So who in the world are these Munya and why are you waiting for them?" Magno asked as she got into a conversation with the leader of Anpathos.

The pirate captain, her second in command, and the lone Gundam pilot found themselves in front of a massive column with a spiraling staircase around the sides and to the top of the column. In front of the column was a stone plaque that showed an image of a person on his knees, with something that resembled a tail near the small of his back, rising towards a sphere of light.

"They are the ones who guided our ancestors to this land." Fanita explained. "We are grateful to them. The Munya are the foundation of Anapthos.''

''What do they come to do?'' B.C. asked.

''The Munya are in need of us. And we look forward to the Munya. They are in need of the Spiral Code from us." The leader of Anpathos replied.

"Spiral Code?" BC's eyes widened as her gaze went to the plaque and also understood the meaning of the picture. "They're after the Spinal Cord!"

"Wait a minute then that means.'' a terrible realization struck Naruto. It wasn't just the Taaraks and Meljerans. It appeared these Harvesters started many human settlements for the sole purpose of harvesting a specific human organ. The whole thing was sickening.

Meanwhile, back on the Nirvana. Bart was in a real mess at the moment."When can we all replenish our food supplies?"

"Excuse me, but I made a request to be assigned to a different locker."

Bart was on the verge of suffering a severe nervous breakdown as the entire crew had been pestering him with a seemingly endless barrage of questions and requests, most of which were solely on very trivial matters. It all became one big jumbled mess, and soon enough the young helmsman couldn't take it anymore.

"PLEASE, I HAD ENOUGH!"

The monitors in the navigation well; all went silent as Bart cut off all communications to the navigation well. Just as soon as he thought that he could finally have some peace, another call came in, coming from Paiway.

"What now?" Bart asked tiredly as he looked at the young nurse.

"Don't flake out." The apprentice nurse warned him before the feed cut. Bart sighed.

Back at the planet Anpathos. The citizens of Anpathos seemed set on sacrificing themselves. Despite being challenged by Magna about their lack of Virtue and foolish beliefs the citizens of Anpathos seemed set on sacficing themselves. Soon a call from Bart when through on BC's communicator alerting them to the presence of the lone enemy ship finally making its move. Naruto rushed back to where Jura was who was still siting down and nothing. ''We have to go Jura-san. The enemy is attacking.''

The blonde pilot angrily turned her head. "Shut up! Leave me alone!''

''This is no time to be sulking. Look around you.''

''I don't want to,'' she remarked, turning away from him.

''Damnit we don't have time for this! We have to fight.'' Naruto said as he gripped her right shoulder, making the blonde woman tense up. Then she slumped back for a moment and sighed sadly.

"It doesn't matter now." She replied without facing him.

''Jura-san, your friends, everyone on the Nirvana is counting on us. If we don't find we're as good as abandoning them if we don't do something.''

''I can't do it.'' Jura began with a choked sob. ''I'm not good enough. How can I call myself a Basil when everything I touch becomes a mess.'' she added.

''Jura-san,'' he softly said. ''Why? Why was this so important to you?''

''I just wanted to do something special. Something everyone back home would remember me for. Remember the Elden name.'' she said as used her sleeve to wipe away the flowing tears. ''My Fama was known by everyone. She was beautiful and elegant; the greatest swordswoman in Mejare until an accident robbed her of her eye and her good arm. She changed after that and so did everyone's perception of her. All they talked about afterwords was how sad it was for her and wondered what she was going to do with her life. My Fama soon stopped smiling after that and she grew depressed. She...she just stopped smiling all together. Once, just once I wanted to do something to bring elegance back to our name so she can smile again.''

''So that's why,'' Naruto asked, feeling a bit ashamed that he had written of Jura's reasons as completely selfish without bothering to figure out why it meant so much to her. Naruto placed a hand on her shoulder. He spun her around and pressed his lips against hers. He pulled her form to his in an attempt to comfort her.

Jura's eyes widened to the size of saucers as she melt into the kiss. Her heart thundered iand her body temperature rose dramatically. _''W-What...no I, I'm with Barnette I like women; so why...why does this feel so good?' _her thoughts became scattered as Naruto deepened the kiss. She began kissing back when Naruto moved his hand up to the side of her head, brushing a strand of hair back and over her ear.

Naruto slowly ended the kiss as he stepped back and released Jura's shoulder as she was still in a deep state of shock and astonishment. After a few moments she gained control of her voice. ''W-Why? Y-You kissed me.'' she breathlessly stammered.

''I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. I...I saw a bit of myself in you; I know what it means to see someone I love so sad and wanting to see them smile. If my actions end up harming your relationship with Barnette then I'll take full responsibility. Though right now we can't worry about those things. The GunDread may not be beautiful but I'm sure its powerful. You can still bring greatness to your family's name Jura. Right now this planet is in danger and every moment you refuse to fight gives the enemy time to make stride. My GunDreads with Meia and Dita may boast speed and power, but ours is a tough old bird. It probably has defenses no other ship can match and a burst mode as well. Jura, I can't do this alone. Please, fight by my side.''

Jura's cheeks darkened at the admission as the sensation of the kiss lingered on her lips. His words were like a love confession and if there was anything Jura was a sucker for it was romance. ''Alright,'' she nodded. ''I'll fight.''

A smile formed on Naruto's face. ''I'm glad Jura-san.'' he said extending his hand and helping her up. ''Now let's go show those harvesting bastards our power.''

The Dread teams were having difficulty in fighting it out with the ever increasing numbers of Cube Fighters, several fighters, which included Barnette who lost her control thruster were now out of commission, as the pirates tried in desperation to hold their lines. However the large machine took no damage as the Cube Fighters continued to press the attack.

Inside the navigation well, Bart was reciting his mantra over and over again."I won't run! I won't run! I won't run! I won't run!"However, as soon as several Cube Fighters got through and blasted the Nirvana with several laser bolts, he squealed like a girl. "We're doomed!''

"Don't be such a coward!" Magno barked as she spoke through Buzam's communicator.

This caught everyone's attention as the captain spoke. ''I've seen countless deaths around me up until now. I curse myself for the powerlessness each time. For not being able to do a single thing for those who died. How they must have regretted leaving many things in their lives undone in their lives. I feel as I'm being torn apart when I remember them. But even in the very end, they never gave up then. They tried to be shining til the very end. I know wonderful people like that. Because I know them, I can't forgive weaklings who rely on others for their own destiny!''

The speech had the desired effect as Bart tensed up and prepared to face the enemy head-on. "I'll never run!''

Then another voice broke through. "Out of the way Bart!''

Upon hearing Naruto's commanding voice, Bart immediately moved the Nirvana out of orbit over Anpathos as the GunDread Jura shot up from the planet's surface. ''Sorry it took us so long everyone. From this point on leave it to us.''

"If you're not quick, we'll get you with the enemy!" Jura added as she also got ready.

GunDread Jura then came to point in orbit over Anpathos and unleashed it's repulsor discs. Each of the discs immediately flew to designated areas over the planet's atmosphere and began emitting a powerful energy wave that connected to each of the other disc's energy waves. In that moment, the entire planet is engulfed in massive planetary energy barrier.

On the surface of Anpathos, the water level receded, as contact with the alien ships was lost due to the barrier erected by GunDread Jura. Both Buzam and Magno smiled in satisfaction.

Inside the cockpit of her GunDread, Jura squealed in delight and joy. "Nobody else can cover a planet like this! I'd love to see the other GunDreads pull this off!"

''Keep your head in the game. Its not over yet.'' Naruto reminded her as he watched the two alien vessels merge into their true intended form, once that was accomplished; the alien vessel unleashed a massive vacuum like force sucking in several Cube Fighters that was being torn apart.

''Alright you damn Glutton. Get a load of this!'' Naruto said as he activated one of the buttons on the console.

A massive opening in the force barrier formed just below the GunDread, in a moment a huge column of water lanced from the surface of Anpathos after being sucked up by the GunDread's main disk. Using the larger disk as a deflector and direction unit, Naruto directed the stream of moisture right into the open maw of the alien ship as it was being stuffed with a massive amount of seawater.

Inside the fused Dread, Jura became concerned as the cockpit began to shake and shudder.

"Hey, you'll break this thing!'' she cried out as she had moved from her seat to grab onto Naruto.

''Are you kidding me? This thing is like a Stonewall. It can take abuse like no other and seeing as this ship has been sent to collect organs from the human body I'm more then sure if we put enough water pressure on it it'll tear apart.''

Meia shook her head. "That's so reckless."

Dita nodded. "I have to admit, I'm a little jealous." She looked on with a slight hint of disappointment, as she wanted her Dread and Naruto to be the one fighting.

A few moments later, the alien ship overshot it's limit and exploded to pieces, sending water flying everywhere and leaving behind only debris that had once been an alien harvest ship.

Inside the GunDread's cockpit, Jura immediately hugged her partner in celebration, they had done the impossible!

Despair overcame the leader of the planet as she dropped to her hands and knees. Shock overcame her. ''H-How dare you!''

''Now,'' Mango started. ''You're all free. From now on, decide for yourselves when you live and die.''

''I will never forget your blasphemy against your god!'' she screamed as she looked up, shooting Mango a hateful glare.

''A god never says anything. Doesn't do anything. And doesn't ask for anything in return. A god just sits and watch over us; over foolish humans who are just lost. Sorry to have bothered you.'' the age old captain and sub-commander made their leave.

Back up in space the GunDread began making their way back to the Vandread. Naruto couldn't help but feel grim.

''What's wrong? We won! We should be celebrating!'' Jura stated, poking and prodding the blond.

''But is it over? What the hell was that attack that shot me down before. If it wasn't that Harvester then what was it?'' he wondered as they returned to the ship. Naruto was looking over Virtue's system as something told him they were going to have another fight on their hands soon. As this was going on Jura and Barnette were conversing not too far away.

"You didn't videotape it?''Jura cried out in disbelief. ''What do you mean?''

Barnette gave her fellow Dread pilot a sigh and later a scowl. "There's no way we had enough time for that!''

Jura sighed in disappointment, but started boasting again. "Oh well, in any case next time, be sure to record the elegance of my machine on your camera.'' the other Dread Pilots dead panned as Jura went on. ''I mean, its so amazing that it can barrier an entire planet.'' she boasted.

Naruto took the moment to slip away before attention could be brought back to him and said girls began fighting over him again. He waited for about an hour before sending a message to both Dita and Jura to meet him in his room.

_''What are you doing here?''_

_''I'm here to meet Naruto. We're going to plan our next magnificent performance!''_

_''Why would he do that? He's going to combine with me.''_

_''Stop being so stubborn Dita.''_

Naruto rolled his eyes as he opened the door to his room. Sure enough said women were about moments away from strangling each other. ''For heaven's sake I can't leave you two alone for a minute can I.''

''Naruto, tell her you invited me.''

''No, tell her that!''

''Ladies!'' he snapped, causing them to cease their bickering. ''Look, I like both of you. I find both of you beautiful and special. The thing is you both have an effect on me whenever you grab onto me and such...'' he paused, trying to figure out a way he could put it. ''Like for instance Jura, you find Barnette attractive right? That's how I feel towards the two of you.'' he explained as Jura adorned a thoughtful expression, resting her face in her hand. He took some time to explain to Jura some of the things he explained to Dita about the nature of his relationship practice.

''I thought as much. At the very least you have good tastes.'' she playfully remarked and flicked her hair. ''But Barnette isn't exactly good at sharing.'' despite the fact she was trying to play it off she kept thinking back to the kiss and how it effected her. All her life she was told men was the enemy. Cruel, vein, vicious, and wasteful; Naruto wasn't any of those things. Then she began to grow curious, what was it like to be with a man? What was love making like with a man? ''I want to know more; I want to experience more.''

A faint blush formed on his face. ''But aren't you...''

''I'll talk to Barnette when the time comes. I know I haven't been fair to her but as I mentioned before we've been having problems lately.'' she began explaining. ''Naruto, Dita,'' she paused, taking a deep breath. ''I want to apologize to the both of you. I've been reckless and even now I'm being selfish, but please be patient to me. Over the past few weeks I've been learning some things and I'm still trying to process it all.''

''Aaaw.'' Dita squealed as she practically tackled Jura in a hug.

''I'm sorry Jura. I've been so mean, please don't be mad at me anymore. I hate fighting with my friends.''

''Uugh, I swear Dita...'' Jura remarked and pat the red-head's head. ''Who could really stay mad at you?'' Naruto chuckled as he watched the two of them finally bonded. ''And you...I certainly hope that kiss back on the planet wasn't your best.''

Dita's eyes popped open and she hopped away. ''What! You kissed Jura, Naruto!'' she whined. ''You have to kiss me too!'' She urged.

Naruto merely smiled. ''Alright then,'' he said with a grin as he moved over to Dita, pulling her into his lap causing her to squeak. He pressed his lips against hers, his right hand coming a rest on her back. He moved his other hand to her lip and deepend the kiss. He groaned as she squirmed, her chest pressing against his.

The kiss eventually ended and the two of them pulled away from each other, though their arms were still wrapped around the other. Both of them stared in silence at each other for a while.

''Alright, my turn.'' Jura commented as she pulled Dita out of the way and attacked Naruto.

_'Jura's a good kisser.'_ Naruto noted. Her lips were rather plump and while Dita tasted like kiwi and strawberries Jura tasted of Vanilla. She then opened her mouth and slipped her tongue into his. After a few seconds they pulled back and pressed her fingers to her lips where Naruto playfully nipped her.

''Wow, you're certainly more playful.'' she remarked. While Barnette was passionate Naruto was more energetic and playful. It was then Jura realized that she and Barnette was in a rut of sorts and why she had such an interest in Naruto. Her heating beat in her chest and a heat in her core began to build. She couldn't believe it, she was attracted to Naruto; she was attracted to a man yet she didn't feel ill, just warm. _ 'He's not a Taraakan. It wasn't his people that killed Barnette's Ohma.'_ she rationalized. Jura knew that she was not going to look forward to this conversation. She knew the reason why Barnette was still so strongly against Naruto for being a man was because a Taraak solider had killed Barnette's Ohma during one of the conflicts. ''That was pretty good,'' she commented, one arm wrapped around the back of his neck while her breasts pressed against his chest. ''I can get closer to you then Barnette so it feels a bit weird.''

''Well, the lack of breasts might have something to deal with it.'' he playfully remarked.

''And that thing you were poking with the other day is hard.'' she said as she rubbed the bulge and Naruto let out a moan.

''H-Hey. Be careful that's sensitive.''

''So the rumors are true, that's your man rod?'' she asked. ''It looks so weird.'' she said as Naruto as softly exhaled.

''It's called a penis. It's a male organ used for copulation and impregnation. '' the blond stated, not really wanting to give two young women the birds and bees talk. Perverted images of a bad hentai set up came to mind and he didn't know if he could trust himself.

''So, does that mean that...well you know, how do you...'' Jura wasn't sure how to put it in words. It was so different from what she knew.

The ship rocked from the result of an impact and the alarm went off. ''Damnit. What the hell is going on with all these attacks?'' Naruto swore as he hopped up from the bed. Hopefully once they defeated the enemy force today they would be able to get a break.


	14. Christmas Time!

Gundread Kitsune  
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Naruto x Harem  
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''Normal Speech''  
_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_  
(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)  
**(Dark over lapping echoes)**  
**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**  
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Author's Note  
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What was suppose to be an action packed chapter, I decided to push back in exchange for filler, development, and such. Anyway that BS about the female members becoming Asshats in the following episodes will not happen in the following chapters.

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Story Start  
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''Why? Why must we always depend on _you_?'' if the bitterness in Barnette's voice wasn't an indicator to how she felt then the point she was pointing a gun at his head more then clarified her feelings. And it was at those moments Naruto finally saw Barnette's true nature. He saw in her eyes what she kept hidden behind her attitude. He saw those eyes in someone once before. Those eyes that sought revenge. ''The Captain, Meia, even Jura. How can they toss away our history.''

''Of men and women being enemies?'' Naruto guessed. It was pretty late at night, most of the crew was asleep and they weren't likely to be disturbed. Especially with the training moon insulated to keep noise in. ''You have to believe that. It inspires you, because without being able to cling to vengeance you won't have anything to do with your life.''

''S-Shut up!'' she roared as she pressed the barrel of the gun against his forehead.

''You don't hate me! I see that now! You hate what I am. Because a man hurt you. The Tarak's did something unforgivable to you, but hasn't it sunk into your thick skull that both your races were raised to hate each other for reasons you don't know. What the hell are you fighting for?'' he demanded as he saw Barnette's hand trembled. The gun slowly lowered from Naruto's head.

''You, you really don't consider yourself like them.'' Barnette mumbled, finally coming to the possibility that Naruto wasn't anything like the men she was raised to hate.

''Ugh!'' he groaned. ''I've only been saying that since day one. Really now, what did they do to you to make them so vehemently?'' he asked, curious as to why she seemed so against him.

''Tarak's took my parents away from me. My family wasn't particularly well off, but we were happy. My parents both worked for the government. My Ohma was a soldier and Fama a scientist. I was only eight when they were both killed and I was left an orphan. Neither of my parents had extended family or siblings so I was left on my own. I shortly met Jura afterwords who unlike people from other well off families didn't treat me as a street urchin.'' _What am I doing? Why am I opening my heart to...why? _she couldn't find the words. She froze when Naruto rose his hand up and placed his hand on top of hers, moving it away. _'What is this feeling?' _she thought as she pulled away.

''If you want to talk, I'm ready to listen any time you know. I just want to be your friend Barnette. I won't hold your upbringing and experiences against you if you're willing to give it a chance.'' he suggested as Barnette tried to make sense of her confused feelings. So she did something she hadn't done in a long time. She fled. She wasn't sure how to make sense of everything she felt. That night Barnette didn't get much sleep. When she got up that morning she noticed Jura had left, most likely to go do those training exercises that most of the pilots had taken too. '_I just want to be your friend Barnette._' Barnette shook her head. _'I've been nothing but hateful to him and he still wants to be my friend. Idiot.' _She got up and took a shower. With a towel clad across her form she went over to her drawer. Instead of reaching for her usual clothing she found her hand coming a rest to where her work-out clothes were.

''Barnette?'' Jura asked, surprised with the green haired girl joined the pilots.

''I'll explain later.'' she merely answered as Naruto began his class. Suffice to say Barnette's growth of character would be her first step in mending things with Jura.

Akuryou watched the recorded video feed of Virtue's victories against the Harvest. He chuckled as his systems scanned the statistics of the machine's capabilities. In two days. In just two days he would finally received the battle he craved. He was going to go slash everyone one of those machines and their pilots to bits.

Meanwhile attacks from the enemy finally eased up. As a result that allowed the Nirvana grew to enjoy themselves. The Holidays rolled around and as a result the women were in a flurry of activity as they placed lavish decorations all over the ship. Currently their ship was traveling on a course, which brought it near the flight path of a huge comet.

BC looked around as she saw many of the crew members busy decorating the bridge of the ship; she however was more concerned with other matters.

"Vice-Captain. Which one do you think is cuter?'' Ezra asked, holding up a star decoration and a large bell with a green written.

BC placed her hand on her forehead, with the expression on her face announcing ' I give up'. "Pick the one you like.''

Ezra smiled and shook a bit, making the bell sound. "What now? I can't choose!''

Buzam sighed once more as a sweat-drop came down her head. It got even bigger as she turned and gazed at her captain, dress in a Santa Claus outfit.

"Well, Christmas couldn't start unless I became Santa, right?'' Magno said with a cheerful smile as she greeted her crew.

The whole bunch crowded around Magno and said that the costume was so cute. But to BC, she just sighed shook her head, once more wearing the expression ' I give up. '

Meia meanwhile in the background looked with unease. The Holidays, only bringing her bad memories, resulting in her leaving the bridge.

In the kitchen Barnette was happily preparing a special Christmas cake for the feast that will be coming soon. Dita and Jura were there in the kitchen as well, helping their comrade out.

Jura looked at the cake critically. "Barnette, put more chocolate cream on it.'' Jura advised her."And don't forget the powdered sugar."

It was then that Jura turned and saw someone who should have been responsible to a certain, and important part of the feast tonight.

Dita was hiding near a table, and smiled as she took a sample of some of the chocolate icing and tasted it. She smacked her lips and smiled cutely as she enjoyed the taste.

"Delicious!"However, she received a rap on the head, as she saw Jura glaring down at her.

"I told you to watch over the turkey!''

The younger Dread pilot sighed while nodding, but as she turned to view the oven where the turkey was, all she could see was thick, black smoke bellowing out. She immediately let out a whimper of 'oh no' and ran straight out of the kitchen.

"Wait a minute, Dita!'' was all she heard as Jura's shout echoed from out of the kitchen.

Naruto, along with the other two men watched the flurry of activity below them. Naruto couldn't help but be drawn in by all the commotion and preparation.

"What's all the commotion about?" Bart asked, no longer able to hold back his curiosity.

Pyoro arrived as he replied to the inquiry. **"It's Christmas get high like that come December 24th.''**

''I wouldn't quite put it like that.'' Naruto corrected. ''God, first I thought having no women was terrible, but no Holidays as well. You're planet is just depressing.''

''Well mister expert if you're so smart why don't you explain what's going on?'' Bart snapped at him.

''Gladly,'' Naruto replied. ''Its one of the many Holidays celebrated all year round. Its a festival of celebration and peace. Its a time where people all over come to a truce of sorts and where war tensions shimmer down. You celebrate such things as family, happiness, and the winter season. One of the traditions is that of Gift giving where you give gifts to people you care about like friends and family. Its celebrated the 25th of December every year and the night before is referred to as Christmas's Eve.''_ I remember when the village was first told of Christmas. _Naruto thought with a nostalgic smile. All the so called revelations of Holidays that Genesis brought sparked interests and those interests sparked revenue and newcomers to Konoha. The so called festivals on Tarak were far from enjoyable, mainly being festivals of strength and showmanship. ''Trust me guys. A Christmas festival beats the hell out of anything from your planet. No offense.''

It was then that a door near them opened, revealing a very perky Dread pilot."Oh! There you are! Naruto!" Dita shouted from down the hallway, waving her arm.

''Her enthusiasm really kills me sometimes.'' Naruto grumbled, putting his hand over his face as his cheeks burned red. '_Gah. You would think after all this time I'd be immune to stuff like this.'_

A moment later Naruto and Dita were walking down a hallway.

"Honest? You didn't celebrate Christmas for most of your childhood?" Dita asked as she, Naruto, along with the Navi-robot walked through the corridor.

''My brother, well he's really my distant ancestor and his family introduced the concept to us. From what I understand we celebrate Asian-relative Holidays as he and some of the others call it. To be honest its kind of hard to go with that terminology as I see myself as a Konohian. My people, the world I was born on don't have race distinctions like most other people despite the fact we have different races. Then again its more of a climate thing and we have very few different races to begin with. I could ramble on everything I've learned to make ten novels and that would still only be a drop in the bucket.''

''Wow, I couldn't imagine not celebrating Christmas.'' she stated. ''I kind of feel bad for Mr. Duero and Mr. Bart if that's the case.''

''Yeah, poor Duero.'' Naruto noted with a nod. ''But they'll see what all the fuss is about once we get the feast underway.''

Dita smiled in agreement. "That's right, and it's one of the best parts. Barnette's making a really special Christmas cake."

''In that case,'' Naruto began. ''I feel myself obligating to help with the preparations.'' the tree men and Dread pilot found themselves in one of the supply closets, shifting through boxes and stuff for supplies.

''What the...'' Naruto moved some boxes out of the way and took notice of a door. ''Hey guys, come look at this,'' he gestured them over. The room as a result was filled with more items.

"WOW! " Dita stated with wide eyes as she gazed inside.

Duero rubbed his finger over an item and checked the amount of dust on the surface. "It looks like an item from the Colonization Era."

"Colonization Era?" Bart asked.

"Yes.''

_'Colonization?'_ Naruto thought as he tried to recall what he heard. _'It must have been that incident._' he concluded. Duero surmised that this part of the ship must have been sealed off during that time.

Dita spied a small box that seemed to be covered under a blanket, she knelt down, removed the blanket and opened the box and began to rummage around it. She then pulled out a rectangular object and held it out for the others to see. It appeared to be an ancient VHS tape with the label entitled ' X-Mas with the family.'

"What is this?"

'''A cassette? I didn't think these existed...anywhere, anymore. We have to show everyone else.'' he suggested.

In the ship's galley, the women stopped in their preparations for Christmas Eve when the monitors lit up and showed a test pattern. The images were grainy and had static from long years of degradation. But it was still clear for all to see and getting clearer.

The scene focused in on a quaint and clear, Christmas setting. It showed a mother and her daughter sitting on couch near a fireplace. Beside the family, was a lavishly decorated Christmas tree and in the background stockings were hanging. In the arms of the mother was her small baby, sleeping soundly.

The women all gave of 'oohs', 'ahhs', and ' how cute' comments as they continued to watch what appeared to be a perfect family Christmas back home on Megele.

''What is this?''

"T-Together with a man..." Paiway gasped as her jaw dropped with open. Everyone, from the group that found it to Meia who was elsewhere. What shocked most of them to the core was how happy the family seemed.

"Amazing! Amazing! It's amazing!" Dita squealed with delight as she and the men continued to stare at the video. And it was at that moments that Naruto's claims finally struck. The validity of his statements now

Floating nearby was Pyoro who's gaze went to the small infant in the mother's arms. "A small human… about my size. A baby…"

At the Medical Bay the reactions on the video weren't just limited to the women… as a certain someone was ranting like a madman.

"A-A MAN AND A WOMAN UNDER THE SAME ROOF...?" Bart was completely hysterical at what he had witnessed.

"It's a tranquilizer. Take it.'' Duero said as he handed some of the relaxant pills to his hysterical companion, which Bart immediately snatched up and gulped down in one run with a glass of water.

In Dita's bedroom the redhead sighed as she lay back on her bed with a blissful expression. In her lap was a small box that was wrapped in green and blue paper with a cartoon style drawing of herself. On top was a message that said, ' Do not open until midnight.'

On the bridge, Buzam was trying her very best to maintain a semblance of order on the crew, but was getting nowhere at all. The females were far too excited to concentrate on their duties and first officer knew that until the Christmas season ends, nothing here could be done completely. She gave out another tired sigh as she sat down on a console, and started scanning the surrounding areas, looking for any sign of the enemy forces.

Meanwhile Parfeit and one of her assistants were working on a new machine. Once completed it was suppose to make it snow, but so far things were not looking good. ''I'll make sure that we have a white Christmas!'' the bespectacled young woman declared, ignoring the fact that machine was fizzling, sparking, and some smoke backfired and darkened parts of her orange jumps suit.

''But at this rate, we won't be in time for the parade.'' the other engineer pointed out.

''That's right...'' Parfeit acknowledged, running her fingers through her hair as she scratched her head. ''Then for the first time...''

She was fiercly cut off by Jura, who along with Barnette came down to the lake to check up on the machine. .''No! I can't imagine it! I refuse to have a Christmas without snow sculptures!''

''You say that but,'' Parfeit sighed, ''I'll see what I can do, though.''

''Why don't you let me help?'' Naruto suggested as he walked past the machine with an acquiring eye. Since Dita had disappeared on him and he already created a kagebunshin to help with the food that didn't leave him much to do. ''I can guarantee you a snowy Christmas no problem.''

''I wasn't aware making it snow was a Ninja ability.'' Barnette quipped as Naruto's lip twitched slightly. As the green haired woman slowly opened up that resulted in Naruto learning a interesting fact about her. She could be quite sarcastic at times, or was it around just him.

''Just so you know. You only get that quip without reprisal because its Christmas.'' he grumbled as he went about summoning the snow fox, Snowflake. Out of the plume of smoke the majestic white Kitsune stood proud for all of three seconds before the combine cry of 'kawaii' echoed and she was glomped and petted. _'Note to self. Start masquerading as a cute animal around women.' _he thought as the white fox shot him a dirty look. ''I summoned you for a purpose this time! I swear!'' he exclaimed, trying to put out the flames that were brewing.'' Snowflake, being a snow fox had the ability to summon and use ice and snow, so she could more then take care of that little problem. During it all he couldn't help but wonder where Meia was at. Now that he thought about it, she didn't even show up for that morning's training session which considering her nature would have made since for her to be there as she didn't seem to be the festive type.

Like her commander BC, Meia found no time or reason to celebrate all that much. Her childhood, after her parent's scandal and deaths, had been very hard on her and she didn't have any happy memories of celebrating Christmas and her birthday for that matter after all that had happened. Since joining up with Magno's pirates, she had been dedicating all of her time to her duties.

Currently, she decided to go out on patrol and scan the area for possible hostile forces, so she made a beeline straight for the Hanger where her Dread was storage. She noticed Gascogne and one of her aides trying to work in a spare seat to Dita's cockpit but with little success. Apparently, the Dread was never intended to carry 'economy sized' passengers,

Naruto went to confirm his suspicions. Sure enough when he arrived to the Hanger Meia's Dread was gone. The Virtue flew near the comet that was easily several miles in diameter. ''Something's odd with this vapor.'' Naruto thought. _'Meia. I hope you haven't gotten yourself in trouble.'_

Up ahead Meia was doing a routine patrol around the area. She continued her investigation only to come across an ambush. Her fighter immediately became entangled in a web network of energy cords and was prevented from moving an inch. She looked up her cockpit and found herself looking at her captor.

The machine resembled a grotesque-looking cross-breed between an eel and an armored spider with one huge, bulging eye in it's center. It was given programmed orders by it's masters to watch over the Nirvana and trap any unwary members of it's crew. The alien machine had set up a type of solid energy net and had been lying in wait for anyone of the Nirvana to come to it. ''To think an enemy had been hiding in here all along. ''

Right before the creature could attack again Virtue flew by, severing one of its limbs. ''Naruto? Why are you here?''

'''Saving your behind for one! What are you doing out here?'' he asked as he rolled out of the way of another attack. ''Be right back.'' he stated as he turned up the power of the boosters and rolled out of the way of two of the creatures limbs, stabbing it in the eye. Pulling out a second beam sabre he went into a frenzied ten slashes attack, double crossing and hitting the creature in every which angle, causing it to come apart and explode.

Once it was over Naruto turned back to Meia and went about freeing her. ''I wouldn't expect this sort of thing from you to be honest.'' Meia just merely hmmped. ''I'll get you out of here in. Three to five hours,'' Naruto jokingly guessed as he began hacking away at the net.

''Naruto! Naruto where are you!'' Dita asked as she began exploring the ship with her present in hand. Suddenly a flash of light radiated from the comet, the effect of the enemy exploding and most of the crew noted how beautiful the light was.

"It's snowing in space!"

"It's so beautiful!"

"I wonder what made that happen?"

"Has anybody seen Meia and Naruto?"

Speaking of which. ''What are you doing?'' Meia asked as Naruto hacked some of the ice shards until there were peaces small enough to carry in Virtue's hand.

''Gift.'' he simply stated.

Meanwhile on the Bridge, Buzam picked up remnants of the conversation and relaxed that the location of the two pilots were accounted for.

For the rest of the crew, Christmas came off without a single hitch, and even the men from Talark got involved with the gift-giving. Parfet, determined to finish what she started managed to get the snow maker back online, and so it snowed both inside the ship and on the outside; making Snowflake's job much easier, leaving her to just freeze the lake, something the machine couldn't do, resulting in having the best of both worlds with ice skating.

Duero then arrived and presented the spunky engineer with a painting that in his words were the image of white blood cells flowing, but it reality was the view of a blizzard. Jura received a fabulous diamond ring from Barnette, while Barnette got a… kiss from Jura. who mentally acknowledged 'was that all?'

BC was moderately surprised to receive a gift from Bart in the form of a container filled with the best Talark food pills in white, green and red.

"Naruto!" Dita cried out as she saw him exit his Gundam's cockpit in the hanger.

''Hey,'' he simply said with open arms, expecting to be glomped by the red-head but she merely stopped and handed him a box.

"I want you to open this at midnight!"

Naruto looked at the box. "Thank you.'' he said as a smile graced his face. ''This was certainly thoughtful. I actually have several gifts, but I'll go get the main one now.'' he said, as he doubled back to Virtue. Dita waited, rather anxious to see what Naruto got her. When he returned he brought back a rather patched looking doll. It was obviously an alien of some kind, and with all the patches, the uneven sized of the hands and two different colored eyes that this was not something bought. ''I made it myself. I'm afraid I'm...'' he handed Dita the doll. ''It's an alien. Sewing isn't,'' he suddenly found himself glomped by the girl. ''I love it.'' she whispered into his ear.

''The second gift is a group gift I got for everyone so we'll skip to the last one okay. Just close your eyes and no peeking.''

Despite her confusion Dita trusted him. She seized up slightly when she felt him place his hands on her shoulders. Her eyes shot open when she felt the sensation of Naruto's lips against hers. Dita was beyond elated at the show of affection. When the kiss broke her cheeks were as red as her hair. ''Merry Christmas Dita.''

''Merry Christmas Naruto.'' she replied back.

''Now come on, its time for me to give out that group present.'' he suggested as h grabbed her hand and led her to where the others were at. It turned out Naruto's group present was making sapphire shaped jewels out of the ice from the comet. Thankfully he was able to get Snowflake back to where the ice was in time before it all melted and with his trusty kunai he began carving various gems and jewels out of the ice. Which, thanks to the nature of Snowflake's ice, being of a special blood line the treasures weren't going to melt any time soon.

Though during this exchange Naruto was pulled aside by Jura and a not so happy Barnette, who was still feeling gipped. Not to mention that Jura seemed to have an actual gift for Naruto did not help her moon. ''This way you'll always have me with you.'' she stated, pulling out her gift. Naruto unwrapped the small package and his face heat up.

''J-Jura!" Barnette exclaimed, scandalized, her face heating up for the same reasons as Naruto.

''This is an uum...nice picture.'' Naruto replied, having to wipe his brow with his sleeve. Such a provocative picture was causing a disturbance in the hormones. ''I got you an uum. Lovely gem.'' he stated, finally finding his voice as he revealed his gem. This one was shaped into an emerald. Jura promptly squealed and pulled Naruto into his cleavage. After almost being smothered by the busty blond he tracked down Barnette who quickly fled from the scene, her anger escalating to its boiling point before it dropped to nothingness as a result of Naruto appearing in front of her, bearing a gift.

''T-This is.'' she began in awe at the very shiny looking weapon.

''New plasma right. Fresh off the market. It was difficult, had to do a chain of summonings and reverse summonings, but it was worth it.'' he stated with a grin as Barnette's eyes positively lit up. The shine to those eyes, the happiness you only come to expect from marriage proposals, or so what TV and most of Media repeatedly inform of you. He was brought out of his thoughts by Barnette's rambling about combat and blowing shit up. 'Note to self. Never have her and Tenten in the same room.' he thought.

''I...I didn't get you anything.'' she admitted, a look of shame formed on her face. Guilt at the anger she held at the blond previously.

''That's okay, we haven't exactly been friends.'' he admitted. ''Though, maybe a kiss?'' he prompted, wanting to know what her reaction was going to be.

Barnette furiously blushed and scoffed, ''Dream on you pervert.'' as she hastily retreated, suddenly feeling those weird sensations from the other day.

''B-but...'' _how does she even know about perverts?_Naruto was stumped for all but two minutes before coming to the conclusion that there must have been lecherous women back on Mejare.

Finally, there was one last person he needed to track down. ''Hey,'' he stated, joining Meia by the viewing window.

''Shouldn't you be celebrating with the others?'' she asked, not bothering to turn around and look at him.

''Its two in the morning,'' he noted, revealing to Naruto that the aqua haired woman lost track of time. ''Its another one of those solitude things isn't it?'' he asked as Meia nodded. ''Bad memories?'' he added as she nodded again. Naruto decided that it was time to bring out the present. Unfolding the jacket he placed it on Meia's shoulder, startling her and causing her to turn around. ''What...is this?'' she asked.

''A jacket, a specially made jacket for commanding officers. Durable, easy to clean, and keeps you warm on those winter nights. I didn't exactly make this on my own, but the material used is rather rare.'' he stated as he placed his hand on one of the orange shoulder patches. ''I used materials from an old combat jacket that was designed to specifically protect me from various elements. This is my way of ensuring even if I can't show up like I did today to help you, that I won't ever stop trying to help.''

''I...thank you.'' she said and tried it on. It was a comfortable fit, with a bit of extra room in the chest area so she could breath comfortably.

''Merry Christmas. Meia.'' Naruto said as he moved to kiss Meia on her cheek, surprising her and causing the normally stoic woman to blush. Her eyes adverted downward for a few seconds before diverting upwards to notice Naruto was now leaving.

Meia gazed back down at the jacket she was wearing and smiled a bit."Merry Christmas… Naruto."

Finally at 3 A.M. Naruto returned to his room. With that he opened Dita's present, which consisted of a flying saucer with a Santa springing out of the box, with an electronic voice like hers, wishing him Merry Christmas along with Confetti and a cartoon version of himself in a Santa outfit with reindeer and sleight appear. The alien amusingly enough was named Santa Alien. This bit of cheer and happiness was just what the crew was going to need, unaware of the shocking revelation that was going to soon come to light.


	15. Fierce Attack!

GunDread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

(Dark over lapping echoes)

''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''

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Author's Note  
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Certain sections of the next chapter and others will feature material and content that can only be found on Yourfanfiction. Go there and join in order to see the full, uncut version of the story.

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Story Start

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This morning was going to be Meia's first official lesson on how to drive Virtue. "Just breath and relax." he told her.

The machine slowly began to rise to its feet, forcing Meia into Naruto's lap. Meia blushed at her current position near Alex as he pushed forward on the controls. Virtue quickly blasted out of the hanger, spreading its wings to fly in any direction the two pilots saw fit.

"Alright, will begin with the flight mechanics." he sharply exhaled. It was hard to get comfortable with Meia moving like that. "Alright, the controls are here." he informed her as he directed Meia's hands. He inhaled her scent, it was natural, unlike Jura who liked to beautify herself Meia was an all natural kind of woman.

"Well start with basic movements then moved to advance controls." he said as he directed her hand to the control. Virtue's speed were nothing Meia couldn't handle as they did spins, rolls, and swaying. Naruto directed her to repeatedly fly around several dwarf planets, getting closer bit by bit until she was confident enogh to switch directions on the time.

The thrusters followed this same pattern. When they got to weapons that's when things began to slow down. The pirates were accustomed to the long range weaponry of their dreads, close range combat was another matter. "Now try to pierce and rip to the right." he instructed.

Virtue's beam sabre flickered to light. Meia inhaled as she focused on her target, a meteor. The thrusters increased and burst forward with an impressive speed. Though Meia slightly overestimated the length of the blade and crashed into it. He could feel her tense from the mistake.

"Don't get frustrated, trust me, it took me weeks to get this far. I wasn't a pilot when I underwent mobile suit training."

"Don't you have a long range mode?" she questioned as Naruto quickly answered.

"The Heavy Arms special gear, but we both know our enemy has a penchant for coming up with new machines. Long range won't always be the ideal choice. Anyway, I wasn't expecting you to get it in the first try. If you take up the basics of swordsman ship, it might help you grow more comfortable with close range combat. We'll worry about things such as reentry later." he said as he took back control. He noticed Meia suddenly turned her attention to him.

"I can't help but wonder, how things would have been if I grew up on your world."

Naruto chuckled,"With that icy exterior of yours you'd fit in with the ANBU. So what got you so curious?"

"Because things have changed. You've changed me. You've shaken my beliefs and no matter how many times I rebuffed you, you never gave up on me, even when you had good reason to. When I'm around you, I feel something I don't understand and it drives me crazy."

Naruto landed Virtue on a nearby Dwarf planet. "It frightens you doesn't it?" he asked as she tensed. He reached up and cupped her cheek. "When you're alone for so much of your life, but someone comes along and chance it. Brings you out of your shell and form a place in your heart." as he said this Meia's hand came to rest on his. "Can you live with the situation, of not being the only one in my heart?"

"Being here with you, it what makes me happy. Its what gives me the strength to move on. As long as there is a place for me, then I'm happy."

That was all Naruto needed to here as he pressed his lips against hers. Meia went wide eyed for a moment before relaxing to it. When the kiss broke Naruto nuzzled his face against Meia's neck, causing her so shiver. She couldn't help but blush, unused to such signs of affection. "You know, were going to cause quite the stir when we get back." Meia couldn't help it, a small smile forming on her face. She let loose a moan as she felt his tongue brushed against her neck.

"So, Meia, ever heard of the Mile High Club?"

Whap!

"Oh come on! How do you even know about that?!" he cried out as he rubbed the back of his head. After about an hour they finally returned to the Nirvana. "I'm going to talk with Dita."

"I'll see you later for training." Meia informed him. She wasn't quite sure how to react. "And, I'm looking forward to spending more time with you." she awkwardly added. This whole thing was new to her after all.

"I'm looking forward to that." Naruto stated as he quickly pecked her on the cheek before leaving to Dita. That include, taking her to the side and explaining in a bit more depth relations between men and women.

"Uum, Naruto, I mean, since your a guy and I'm a girl..." Dita awkwardly began, blushing and poking her fingers together. "...that we could be together? Like boyfriend and girlfriend?" this was the first time he ever heard Dita stammer or act shy.

Naruto couldn't help himself but laugh. Dita blushed even deeper, feeling embarrassed. "Don't take it the wrong way Dita-chan." he assured her, noticing she was looking rather self conscious. He joined her on her head and clasp her hands. "I would really like that, but...uugh, okay, I should have really gone over this. Does Meljare practice Polygamy?" he asked as he noticed the girl's confused look.

"What, is that some sort of religion?" she asked and cutely blinked.

"N-No...uggh, well, it has to do with religion." he clasped his hand over his mouth. "I...practice Polygamy..." this was a bit more difficult to explain.

"So...I have to...share...you?" Dita slowly processed. She definitely wasn't having the reaction he thought she was. She didn't look happy at all. She turned away from him. "I need some time to think." she told him as Naruto got up.

"Alright, I'll...see you later then." he bid her goodbye as he left her room.

The alarm went off, signalling the attack of their ever persistent enemy. All the pilots began boarding their ships.

(Tales of Symphonia - Fighting of the Spirit Remix )

One by one the pirates designated themselves as they launched.

"Dita here, the Blue Comet and I are ready to go!"

"Jura here, my fabolous Red Ruby is ready to be elegant!"

"Meia here, The Gisborn and I are ready!"

"Virtue and Naruto here, I almost kind of feel sorry for the poor bastards. They don't seem to ever learn."

As they all flew forward to engage the enemy Celtic's voice blared to life over the commlink. Thanks to the sensors finally being tuned and upgraded, the readings from the Nirvana were now more accurate and the scales of power could be better defined. "Becareful, our scanners our picking up that black Mobile Ship amongst their forces."

'Akuryou,' Naruto thought as he turned his thrusters. "I'm taking the fight to him. Everyone one remember the plan he right?" he asked as he got confirmation from his fellow pilots. "Alright then, let's go." he said as he turned up the thrusters even more and shot forward. With his beam saber drawn he slashed through several of the cube fighters that flew directly at him.

Explosions erupted from the tiny ships as they were cleaved into pieces. Naruto suddenly found himself avoiding a blast from a rifle. Coming to a stop he noticed missiles were fired at him to which he prematurely detonated with the Vulcan canon. "Its time we finish this once and for all!"

Drawing its own beam saber Vengeance charged. The sabers connected as both pilots tried to over power the other. The vengeance began firing from its Vulcan canon to which the Virtue moved back and took out its spare beam rifle. He began firing to which the machine shield itself with its barrier. "What's wrong Uzumaki? You appear to be low on weaponry?" Naruto kept up the fight, slowly drawing his enemy away from the others as their weapons continued to clash. "No comments? No witty remarks?"

Naruto answered by activating the rail canons on the hips of virtue. Akuryou quickly activated his barrier to shield his machine, but what he didn't expect was some sort of frequency to occur and sort circuit his barrier frequency. "Jura now!" Naruto shouted as he raised his thrusters to full power and rammed into the vengeance.

The forced of the blow sent the dark mobile suit flying back, forcing its pilots to slow the descent of his machine. "I'll evaporate you with this next attack!" he declared as he began charging his charged particle gun. The yellowish-white glow of the powerful weapon quickly formed. Reason meant nothing to psyche of this psycho. What he craved in one battle did not necessarily remained the same in the next.

Fully charged he fired the weapon just as Jura and Naruto combined. A sadistic glee filled Akuryou as he wanted nothing more but to watch as the units and its pilots were slowly disintegrated.

Though, in their place was only a crab-like machine. Desire coursed through him, the thrill of being able to fight what could be a powerful enemy so he could tear it apart with his bear hands caused him to practically salivate. His mood had suddenly changed. "Don't die too quickly." he charged forward, his beam saber attempted to stab into the machine only for a green barrier to erect itself around the machine.

The barrier dropped as the discs that were rotating around the Red Claw flew up to hover horizontally above the GunDread. The largest of the disc flew up to hover above its eight counterparts. It then unleashed eight beams of destructive energy that immediately were absorbed into the smaller discs. Firing at eight different points in Vengeance's direction the machine swerved to left and up, receiving a hit of damage to its torso and its right leg.

Pulling out a second hip-mounted beam saber the Vengeance formed a beam spear and charged towards the machine again. The barrier once more formed as the crazed pilot attempted to force his way through before being forced back by the disk fire.

Growing annoyed he activated the system equipped to his machine and began coordinating his weapons. Disengaging his saber he brought out his beam rifles and readied his shoulder mounted missiles. Locking onto the disks and readying his weapons and canons, he let loose a stream of simultaneous fire and missiles.

The disks sent our their own attack. The reflected beams had hit their target and detonated several of the missiles as the beams tore through the air, several of the bursts hitting some of the disks, causing them to malfunction.

"He's cracked our disk. We won't be able to do refracted blasts anymore." Jura stated in a cool tone. Between the training and constant battles she was developing a cool head when it came to battles.

"He's not the most patient fighter. Focus everything in maintaining the shield and we'll let him wear out his power." he stated as the mad pilot was once more going with the charged particle gun. He fired against the Red Claw's who shield kept the blast at bay.

Meanwhile the others were dealing with the enemy forces."The enemy forces have dropped to below half." Amarone said as an image flickered to life. The enemy dots were disappearing one by one. "The Vanguard squadron is currently tending with the last of the Sea-Urchins."

It was working. All that training, all that coordinating, it was finally paying off. Out on the battle field Meia soared through several cubes, using her Dread's silver-wing attack to slice through several of them.

Meia opened a connection with Dita. "Be ready to combine with Naruto. The enemies barrier has been disabled and now's our chance to finish him once and for all." Meia informed the red-head who seemed preoccupied. "Dita, did you here?"

"Huh, of course leader." she was shaken out of her thoughts.

"Dita watch out!"

Dita was just able to get a glance at the approaching enemy. Several of the cubes fired, blowing the Dread off course and damaging one of the wings.

Meia was about to intervene before several dozen cube squadrons began firing on her, forcing her back.

"How are our shields holding up?" Naruto asked as Jura did a scan.

"Holding at seventy percent power. At this rate that psycho is going to damage our beautiful union. Does he no appreciation for beauty?" cried out as the Gundread trimmered from yet another charged particle being.

"He's a sociopath with violent mood whip lashes and who knows what else, Jura-chan." he answered and began fiddling with the consoles that controlled the disks.

"Dita's in trouble! Someone help!" Celtic's voice blared over the channel.

Naruto had to stop himself from reacting, knowing that taking his eyes off the enemy was dangerous. "We have to help her." Jura suggested.

"We'll only put her in more danger if we lead this psycho to her. We have to take him out."

"But how? The weapons on here aren't powerful enough." Jura pointed out, they both were shaken as yet another charged particle gun impacted their barrier and caused their shield energy to drop even lower.

"Damnit," Naruto swore, if only they weren't nearly depleted on supplies and so many of his special option equipment damaged or destroyed.

"Can't we use our disks to deflect his blast?" Jura questioned.

"The power of his attack is too powerful. It'll just crack them." Naruto pointed out.

"Then why can't we just deflect it? Focus and generate a barrier instead of a shield?" she suggested as Naruto's eyes widened.

"Jura-chan! You're a genius!" he exclaimed. Of course, he had the inner components of a special competent meant to be used in conjunction of a special armor to deflect beams like the charged particle gun. It would make sense that the fusion of their units would have a defensive move to reflect that.

"Why of course, I'm more than just outrageously beautiful you know." she remarked with a haughty, noblewoman's laugh.

"Pat yourself on the back later. Dedirect our power and remaining disks to form a barrier in front of the Red Claw. The five undamaged spheres formed a pentagon shape in front of the GunDread.

"No more games! Let's see you handle the full power of my machine. Kitto minna ga shinimasu!" (You will all die) he shouted as he unleashed the full power of his charged particle gun. Ignoring the warning signs of his machine and readings that indicated the temperature was becoming dangerously high. Wings sprouted and poised the death machine fired the full force of its attack. The attack soared through impasse of space, as silent as death itself and connected with the barrier.

The power of the Red Claw's shield dropped to just below forty-percent. Naurto and Jura both found themselves having to brace against the attack, forcing all their strength into maintaining hold of the shield, which was murmuring slightly from the attack. Though the struggle soon ended and as the attack from the Vengeance timed out and the attack deflected as quickly as it was sent out.

Stunned that his own attack was deflected back at him, the dark pilot was able to just maneuver out of the way, the attack incinerating his machine's right arm, leg and thruster, resulting in heavy damage. Akuryou merely cackled as electrical sparks crackled from his damaged limbs. 'One of us has to die. One way or another.' he thought as he withdrew his remaining beam saber. He noticed the Red Claw turn and began heading back to the battle field. 'No, you won't get away.' he thought as he began chasing after with his still functioning thruster.

"Dita! Is she okay? What are her coordinates!?" Naruto asked as the fusion ws disengaged.

"Wha...hey!" Jura cried out.

"Yell at me later alright!" Naruto shouted back to her.

"Pilot Uzumaki calm down!" Buzam told him as her image flickered onto the screen. "Pilot Liebely was rescued by pilot Orangelle and is currently back on the Vandread."

"Thank Kami!" Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.  
(Song End)

(Mega Man X3 OST-RA, T06: Opening Stage (Maverick Hunter HQ)

"Pilot Uzumaki. That black machine is quickly approaching your location!" one of the navigators warned him as Naruto quickly manuevered out of the way.

"What the hell! I should have known that was way to easy." Naruto remarked as Akuryou's image appeared on his screen.

"Uzumaki, you and I have a score to settle. No more interruptions, now are you going to fight me or am I going to have to carve up your pretty little friends to make sure they stay out of the way!?" he threatened, setting Naruto off as blond's eyes went crimson.

"No...this ends now!" Naruto roared as he charged forward, opening with an upward slash, only for the Vengeance to disappear. 'What...he still has that level of speed despite the damage?' he thought as he moved his beam sabre behind him to block the attack.

Naruto swerved to the left and fired Micro missiles from the pods stored in the legs. Akuryou countered by using his vulcan canons to shot down the initial missiles and using his speed to avoid them, flying among the few harvester ships that remained, using them as decoys to prematurely detonate the missiles. A grin formed on his face as he used his scanner to locate Naruto through the other side of the thick cloud of machine parts.

The Vengeance soared through the cover of the destroyed ships as its beam saber sliced Virtue's left hand clear off and going back before Naruto could return the favor with his own beam saber and began firing with his vulcan canon to which impacted Virtue's chest, causing damage to the chest cavity.

"Its been a fun little game, but now it seems like you can't even keep up with me anymore. I'll make this quick!" Akuryou taunted as he began flying circles around the Virtue. He then suddenly broke from his pattern and rushed the Virtue from the left.

It should have been a simple and clean cut, his blade piercing the pilot's seat. Yet, he found his machine throw off balance as his other arm was severed. 'W-What?' he thought as he saw his saber piercing the upper left portion of Virtue's chest. 'That bastard, he accelerated forward, took the attack and used the momentum to spin and upward slash my arm off. Incredibly fucking insane and something like that shouldn't have worked.' he thought as he chuckled. 'Expected of the one that beat me, but I'm not one to go out without a bang.'

(Song End)

Naruto readied his beam saber. One attack would end it all. "I couldn't help but notice your movements. Tell me Uzumaki, are your thrusters almost out of fuel?" Akuryou taunted him. It didn't matter whether or not they were, it wasn't like the man could do anything, all his weapons were malfunction. "Our systems have violate cores, especially one that would have the power to fuel my charged particle beam. It'd make a Hell of an explosion don't you think?" he asked, seeing Nauto's reaction made hims realize just what the crazed bastard had in mind.

(All Hail Shadow Orchestral)

"EVERYONE! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" He shouted a she charged at the man, only for Vengeance to fire some missiles from the pod on his leg. Naruto found himself having to shoot down and slash the missiles, costing him valuable seconds as Vengeance took off towards the Nirvana with the intent of detonating and wiping them all out.

The order was given for the Dreads to try and shoot down the enemy target only for him to maneuver out of the way of the blasts. A few stray shots nicked him, causing damage to his armor, but little was done to deter him. Somehow he was able to easily avoid their shots.

Naruto followed closely behind him, trying to shoot him down with his vulcan shots, but it proved fruitless. "NARUTO!" he recognized Meia's voice instantly. Nothing else had to be said as the Gisborn hovered above him. In a silver flash Speedster Gundread was formed.

With near blinding speed they shot forward with a burst and with a single slash Vengeance's thruster was sliced in half, resulting in a small explosion and stopping the madman's plan in his tracks. Grabbing the wrecked Gundam they flew it far away from the battle zone that was nearly devoid of enemies.

Once they were satisfied it was far enough away they prepared for their final attack. They charged forward.

(Raven's Theme Song )

"You guys! Something's coming in and its coming in fast!"

Naruto and Meia turned and picked up another enemy signature on their radar. They dodged the speedy attacker which then stopped. It turned around, revealing itself a Gundam. "Another Gundam?" Meia voiced in surprise.

"We have to be careful. There's no telling what that thing can do." Naruto remarked as the enemy drew a scythe. It then disappeared from their sight and radar completely. "Shit! Where did it go?" Naruto swore as they looked around.

"We've lost site of the enemy!" Celtic said over the link.

Suddenly it appeared right in front of them, the ominous scythe glowing red. Before they could react the blade slashed the torso of the Gundread as a red aura consumed the machine. As a result the Gundread found itself violenty forced apart into the Gisborn and Virtue.

"That's impossible!" Buzam exclaimed, for the first time in a long time losing her normally calm demeanor. No amount of damage or fighting had ever forced the Vandread and later the Gundreads to be forced apart.

"Naruto and Meia's Gundread..." Jura trailed off in other shocked.

"...was forced apart." Barnette finished. Both pilots braced themselves as Dita speed by in her recently fixed Dread.

"Dita are you insane!? You'll be killed!" Jura yelled as she followed after her.

Without missing a beat the mysterious new enemy fired missiles from the shoulder mounted device on its shoulders, heavily damaging both the Dread and Gundam.

"You weasely little bitch!" Akuryou sneered. "Where's the fun in weakening them with cheap tricks?" Harbringer's pilot said nothing. "Don't ignore me! HE'S MY PRAY! I'M THE ONLY ONE ALLOWED TO KILL HIM! DO YOU FUCKING HERE ME!"

"Weak mongrels should be put down! Consider yourself lucky, if the master still didn't have use for you, I would have ended you there."

Akuryou continued to sneer but said nothing. There wasn't anything he could in his current state but watch his prey being stolen from right in front of him. In his fury he slammed his fist into the controls without any regard of what could have happened. 'Damnit...I'll kill her one. One day, I'll take her body apart bit by bit.'

Harbringer's pilot put away her scythe. "I have heard of the stories. You are a dangerous one, eliminating will be the best course of action." She thought as she prepared to let loose an arsenal of gun fire and missiles.

"Naruto! Get out of there!" Dita shouted as she continued to speed forward, but received no respond. "Naruto!" she shouted again, fear and panicked was overcoming her. Harbringer then fired as it attack began to blow the Virtue apart. "NAAAARUTTTTTTO!"

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Chapter End  
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I was going to feature an opening of sorts for this chapter, but for heaven's sake, it took me so long to do this chapter I'm just going to say screw it and put it in next chapter.


	16. Goodbye Virtue!

GunDread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

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Author's Note

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My created opening. I've done one for Naruto of Justice with this song and I was not going to have all that hard work be for not.

Kanzen Kankanku Dreamer by One Ok Rock

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An image of red blood cells appears followed by White blood cells. The ligaments of the human body appear, followed by tissues and other identifiers of the human body. Slowly but surely the image expands before it reveals the image of the human body. The body disappears in a flash of green light as an image of the Nirvana flying through space appears.

An image of Naruto in Virtue appears. He's flying through space when in a flash Vengeance and Akuryou appear. Their beam sabers clash and both were forced away from each. He fires a charged particle beam to which Naruto narrowly avoids only to be hit by some missiles, sending him crashing into a meteor.

_So now my time is up_

_Your game starts, my heart moving?_

_Past time has no meaning for us, it's not enough!_

_Will we make it better or just stand here longer_

_Say it "we can't end here till we can get it enough! _

Right before he could be killed Akuryou is blown off course. An image of Dita, Meia, and Jura's dread flies by. The image cracks into three triangles showing their faces. A smirk formed on Naruto's face as Virtue dislodges itself from the meteor. The four of them begin flying at Akuryou when their developed by a white light.

_Zettaiteki konkyo wa uso darake_

_Itsudatte aru no wa boku no_

_Jishin ya fuan o kakimazeta_

_Yowai you de tsuyoi boku!_

Images of the Nirvana are shown. BC and Magna are on the bridge with the former giving orders. Amarone and the other navigators are on their consoles when data appears. It then switched to a view of Bart who was currently navigating, extending his out his hand and yelling something as a powerful beam of energy erupts from the Nirvana wiping out a squadron of enemies. Duero, Parfeit and the other members of the Nirvana are shown during their usual duties.

_This is my own judgement! Got nothing to say!_

_Moshimo hoka ni nanika omoitsukya sokkou iu sa!_

_Kanzen kankaku Dreamer ga boku no mei sa_

An image of the Blue giant is quickly shown destroying enemies with its twin canon. An image of Gundread Meia appears, slicing through one of the Sea Urchins with ease. Finally an image of Gundread Jura shielded the Nirvana from enemy attack, as it uses its disks to fire on the enemy.

_Itsudatte aru no wa boku no_

_Jishin ya fuan o kakimazeta_

_Yowai you de tsuyoi boku!_

Dark images of shrouded figures appear. Vengeance fires the Charged Particle gun and of Harbringer glowing with a menacing red light. Shadowed visions of the Harvester's forces then appear.

_When I'm caught in fire_

_When I rise up higher_

_Do you see me out there?_

_I can't get enough! Can't get enough!_

The image comes down to Naruto in the ship's bio garden. Suddenly he's glomp on his right arm by Dita. He's hugged from behind by Jura. An amused Meia stood off to his left, a brief flash of their machines appear behind him as everything goes to black.

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Story

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When the attack fizzled there was only a frizzled torso left. Electricity sparked from the once mighty machine. "The virtue is tougher then I gave it credit for. This next attack will end it." She stated as she prepared to charge again only for something to pop up on her radar.

Harbringer's pilot was hit by the powerful beam, causing heavy damage, burning off the armor off the torso and right hand. Warning went off and she frowned. She began tracking the origin of the blast when the image of an angelic winged Gundam appeared. "XXXG-00W0S Wing Gundam Seraphim." She identified. '_Reporters confirmed that Gundam destroyed years ago.' _She thought as she did a diagnostic. Regardless, between this unexpected attack and the forces of the Mejare pirates the odds weren't in her favor. _'Without the use of his unit Uzumaki's threat level has dropped. For now I shall let him live.'_ The pilot thought as she began to retreat. Grabbing the wrecked Vengeance she disappeared with near blinding speed.

"Naruto…Naruto…" Dita cried as her ship came to a stop next to the wrecked Gundam. There was no response or communication.

"Dita! Calm down!" Meia ordered.

"But leader…" Dita was nearly hysterical at this point.

"Its a possibility that he's not answering you because of the damages that might have been done to his communication system. If he's been seriously injured then he's most likely unconscious and must be taken to the medical bay as soon as possible. Control your emotions."

Dita said nothing, bowing her head in shame.

Meanwhile the mysterious Gundam was in the process of communicating with the commander. "Commander, the mysterious Gundam is trying to initiate chat with us. Should I put it through?" Celtic asked, turning in her seat.

"Put it through!" BC ordered.

On the monitor a young man with cold eyes and short brown haired appeared on the screen. "This is Captain Yuy Hero of Genesis Forces, Gundam squad one. I am requesting permission to come aboard and check upon the status of Captain Uzumaki Naruto of Squad four."

"Permission granted." Magno granted.

"Understood,'' the feed was cut.

"Captain?" BC questioned.

"If that young man is indeed who he says he is, I rather relations start off as friendly, not to mention we might have to depend on him." A grim look formed on Magno's face. "We almost lost Naruto not to mention we lost the Virtue. You know what that means right commander?"

A solemn look formed on BC's face. The Virtue was gone and that meant so were the Gundreads as well.

With a gasp Naruto jolt up, he was heavily sweating and his vision was blurred. "You should move so suddenly!" Naruto suddenly turned to his right, tense, relaxed upon seeing it was Duero.

"W-What happened?"

"You were attacked by another Gundam. Your Gundam was wrecked beyond repair, you were found unconscious inside the cockpit." He explained as an intense looked formed on Naruto's face.

"That beam…" he face tightened. "…it was…" he shook his head, it was no use dwelling on it. "What happened?"

"Do you happen to know a Captain Yuy Hero?" he asked as Naruto sharply exhaled.

"Understood, that's all I need to know." Naruto answered as he threw off the bed sheet.

"You shouldn't be moving around so quickly…" Naruto interrupted him with a dismissive hand-waved.

"I'm a super human, I heal quickly, and you should know that." Naruto remarked as he went over where his clothes were. They appeared to have been wash, dried, and mended. Once they were on he was a step out of the door before he was assaulted by cleavage.

"You have any idea how worry I was?"

"I think I might have an idea!" Naruto mumbled between Jura's breasts, his answer quite muffled by the cleavage.

"Don't ever do that again you hear?" her tone left no room for argument. When he was finally let go he caught a glimpse of Meia walking towards him.

"Meia-chan…"

The sensation of stinging flesh coursed through him as well as the sound of a slap.

"That…that was for almost dying." She said and then quickly threw her arms around him, hugging him, greatly surprising Meia and all the other members of the ship who could take time off from their duties and visit now. "And this…this is for coming back." She whispered into his ear, quickly ending the hug seconds later.

"The Captain and Commander?" he asked.

"With Yuy." She answered, Naruto nodded and looked around. He couldn't help but feel disappointed when he noticed Dita wasn't anywhere in sight. Eventually he was able to slip away from them and go check on what remained of his Gundam.

A mournful sensation flew through Naruto as he arrived to the hangar. He walked over to what remained of his partner; he placed a hand on it. "You…you didn't deserve to go out like that. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I wasn't a better pilot. If I was, you'd still be here. Thank you…for being by my side this entire time. You saved my life and I'll never forget that. Good bye…Virtue." Naruto thought as he pulled himself away from the Gundam.

He turned and sure enough there was Dita. She turned to leave but was stopped by the sound of his voice. "Dita!" she paused in place. "Dita…please!" he pleaded as she turned to face him, her regret highly visible. The next thing she knew Naruto embraced her.

"Naruto…I…" the words wouldn't come out. What could she say?

"It's okay. You don't have to say anything." He assured her as he hugged her closer. Somehow, someway, they were all going to get through this.


	17. Floating Adrift!

GunDread Kitsune

0

Naruto x Harem

0

''Normal Speech''

_Inner Thoughts, Dialogue, or reading passages from books and scrolls_

(Quick Notes and Messages or Echoes.)

**(Dark over lapping echoes)**

**''Boss Summons, Demons, Dark beings speaking, Demonic/Angry characters speaking as well as extremely Dark spells and Magic.''**

000000

Author's Note

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My created opening. I've done one for Naruto of Justice with this song and I was not going to have all that hard work be for not.

Kanzen Kankanku Dreamer by One Ok Rock

000000

An image of red blood cells appears followed by White blood cells. The ligaments of the human body appear, followed by tissues and other identifiers of the human body. Slowly but surely the image expands before it reveals the image of the human body. The body disappears in a flash of green light as an image of the Nirvana flying through space appears.

An image of Naruto in Virtue appears. He's flying through space when in a flash Vengeance and Akuryou appear. Their beam sabers clash and both were forced away from each. He fires a charged particle beam to which Naruto narrowly avoids only to be hit by some missiles, sending him crashing into a meteor.

_So now my time is up_

_Your game starts, my heart moving?_

_Past time has no meaning for us, it's not enough!_

_Will we make it better or just stand here longer_

_Say it "we can't end here till we can get it enough! _

Right before he could be killed Akuryou is blown off course. An image of Dita, Meia, and Jura's dread flies by. The image cracks into three triangles showing their faces. A smirk formed on Naruto's face as Virtue dislodges itself from the meteor. The four of them begin flying at Akuryou when their developed by a white light.

_Zettaiteki konkyo wa uso darake_

_Itsudatte aru no wa boku no_

_Jishin ya fuan o kakimazeta_

_Yowai you de tsuyoi boku!_

Images of the Nirvana are shown. BC and Magna are on the bridge with the former giving orders. Amarone and the other navigators are on their consoles when data appears. It then switched to a view of Bart who was currently navigating, extending his out his hand and yelling something as a powerful beam of energy erupts from the Nirvana wiping out a squadron of enemies. Duero, Parfeit and the other members of the Nirvana are shown during their usual duties.

_This is my own judgement! Got nothing to say!_

_Moshimo hoka ni nanika omoitsukya sokkou iu sa!_

_Kanzen kankaku Dreamer ga boku no mei sa_

An image of the Blue giant is quickly shown destroying enemies with its twin canon. An image of Gundread Meia appears, slicing through one of the Sea Urchins with ease. Finally an image of Gundread Jura shielded the Nirvana from enemy attack, as it uses its disks to fire on the enemy.

_Itsudatte aru no wa boku no_

_Jishin ya fuan o kakimazeta_

_Yowai you de tsuyoi boku!_

Dark images of shrouded figures appear. Vengeance fires the Charged Particle gun and of Harbringer glowing with a menacing red light. Shadowed visions of the Harvester's forces then appear.

_When I'm caught in fire_

_When I rise up higher_

_Do you see me out there?_

_I can't get enough! Can't get enough!_

The image comes down to Naruto in the ship's bio garden. Suddenly he's glomp on his right arm by Dita. He's hugged from behind by Jura. An amused Meia stood off to his left, a brief flash of their machines appear behind him as everything goes to black.

000

Story

000

"I see you guys have started the party without me," Naruto remarked as he entered the room where his fellow Captain and the Nirvana's leaders were.

"You're just in time. Captain Yuy here was just informing us about his mission." Magno stated as she shifted back slightly in her hair. "Though should you really be up and about considering your injuries?"

"I'm fine, I've lived through worst." Naruto assured the captain. "Though that begs the question, why did they send you Yuy-Taicho? While I do appreciate your timely intervention, surely this can't be about delivering information or something of the sorts."

"That is correct. Three weeks ago at 0600 hours we were attacked by the enemy. Our forces sustained heavy damage and we lost several ships. During the course of this battle we lost contact with the Diabolon and the Crimson Squad."

"How large was the enemy fleet that attacked?"

"The fleet consisted of thirty cruisers, ten assault carriers, two battlecruisers, and the enemy Flagship."

A frown formed on Naruto's face. "And are you saying such a force was able to decimate our forces?"

"The enemy also brought out a Gundam when capabilities that were unknown, even at this time."

A scowl formed on Naruto's face. "That damn Silver Gundam again. Why am I not surprise?" the blond murmured.

"Silver?"

To Naruto' surprise Heero was showing visible confusion. "The Gundam that was involved in the assault was Crimson."

"So you're telling me the enemy has two unforeseen Gundams with unknown capabilities? The new just keeps getting better and better." he grumbled. And with Virtue gone he couldn't even fight against this threat.

Mango finally spoke up. "Gentlemen, while I'm sure the two of you have much catching up to do, there are matters that must be decided. Mainly what to do about the threat of attack by the Harvesters."

Naruto folded his arms. "She's right Yui-Taicho. I assume you and the others have come in contact with ships in the shape of cubes, oysters, and other strange shapes?"

Heero nodded. "The description matches the hostile enemies that have attacked our forces on more than one occasion. The result ended in their extermination."

"Yeah well, these creatures are going around and harvesting humanoid species for their organs. Essentially their the farmers and we're the crops in their sick little game. During my absence I discovered and unusual method of power, the union of machine. My theory is the exposure to this ship's power source had altered Virtue allowing it to fuse with certain machines among this crew's roster. Using this method we have been effectively combating the enemy until recently. Though with the destruction of Virtue our combat methods have been heavily neutralized. We need your help." It was times like this Naruto how things got this far. Things were so much simpler before outside influences found their way to their home. Everything was so much simpler before having to change so much it made it difficult to remember how much simpler life was back then. Naruto realized just how screwed up everything was when the Fourth Ninja War could be considered one of those simpler events of his life.

"My mission was to locate you and the Virtue unit. Once that was done I was to await for further orders."

And there would be no telling how long those orders would last considering the current state of things. So it was decided the next few days would be reconfiguring their battle strategies. With Virtue no longer operational that meant Naruto was off the front lines and Hero would have to take his place.

Said blond currently found himself balancing a couple of cartons in his arms, while following Dita through a food storage room. Even though he didn't have proof, he would sure his three dread partners had conspired to keep him occupied so he wouldn't be alone to brood over what happened. He appreciated the sentiment, knowing just how self-destructive keeping everything to one's self could be.

"All I need now are some carrots." The redhead stated as she picked up a carton off a shelf. Loading it atop the two that Naruto was already carrying, she turned to make a beeline toward the exit. It was then that she saw Paiway had been hiding behind the shelf.

"What are you doing here?" The little apprentice nurse asked.

Dita became a bit flustered as she tried to explain without giving away the true purpose of her raiding the storeroom. "Uhh, well I'm just here to cook up something for lunch, that's all."

Paiway became a bit disappointed, then perked up and asked, "By the way Dita, do you know what day this is?"

Dita shrugged while smiling. "Sure, it's Thursday."

"Anything else?" The eleven-year-old asked with hope.

"Uh... no, I can't think of anything else." She turned to Naruto. "Come on Naruto!"

Meanwhile at the bridge Parfet was looking through her telescope and zeroed in on Mejere the women's home planet. "I see it, I see it." she said excitedly.

Captain Magno looked down to the engineer. "So how far have we gotten on our journey?" said the captain awaiting good news. Parfet thought for a second before speaking.

Then with an enthusiastic voice said. "I'd say about half way". The captain sighed,This was not the news she wanted.

BC looked at the captain and said "If we've gotten this far that means that the messages we sent must have arrived by now." she quietly mused to herself. She could only hope that this was the case.

The Nirvana's sick bay...

"It's not fair!" Bart sulked as he and Duero discussed about their situation on the Nirvana. "It's been months since we've been on this ship. I've been worried about my standing here. In other words, how everyone else has been treating me. They still treat me like I'm a stranger on the bridge!" When the good doctor did not answer right away, the navigator continued to whine about his lack of prestige among the women. On Tarak, he had been a figure of some repute, but here on the Nirvana, the crew took little to no notice of him.

The physician thought about it for a while then decided to use a story to explain. "Once upon a time, there was a man with very short hair, and he wanted to part of a group. The problem was that they all had very long hair. The decided that the best way to join that group was to have long hair as well. So he bought himself a wig and asked to join. They accepted and he became a part of the group. However, some time later, they discovered that he really had short hair but they accepted him into their group anyway, since they had all become good friends. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

Bart thought for a minute, then nodded as if he comprehended. "I get it!" He then went off to his quarters.

Ezra was at her post. However, her mind was not on her duties, but rather on what she would name her child when she was born. She had been compiling a list of names and wondered which one would suit the baby. The little robot Pyoro had been insisting since the Christmas party to name the baby Pyoro 2, but Ezra didn't like that one. However, she was just too kind-hearted to tell the Nivana's mascot that she was going to choose a name other than Pyoro 2 for her daughter.

As she was still deep in thought, the bridge doors opened to reveal the navigator. When everyone turned around, their eyes opened wide when they saw.

"Naruto, is that too heavy?"

"Nah, I'll be fine." The shinobi replied as he followed the pilot down a corridor, heading to the kitchen. In his right arm he held three large boxes, which thanks to how they were stacked partially blocked his sight. As he passed by a door, he heard someone breathing heavily and decided to pause for a moment and have a look. The door was slightly opened, so he opted to take a quick peek.

His eyes widened a bit at what he saw. This was the first time he had ever seen Celtic Midori without that silly, full-body bear suit. He had to admit that she was cute. She had a slender form and her skin was pale. Her gree-blue hair was cropped in a short style that framed her heart-shaped face nicely. When his gaze traveled down, his cheeks reddened a bit when he saw her in nothing but her undergarments. Mentally chiding himself for acting like a Peeping Tom, he shook his head and quickly turned to catch up with Dita.

When he arrived Dita was happily humming to herself as she continued preparing a special meal for a certain somebody. Naruto couldn't help but wonder who it was for..

"Oh, so you finally took that silly costume off, have you?" Jura remarked as Celtic came into the recreation hall, still in her undergarments and carrying the bear suit. Several of the other girls and Pyoro were in the room as well.

"I only wore this suit because I didn't want any part of my body touching those men! I didn't even want to breathe the same air as they do!"

"What's the big deal? They aren't so bad." another one of the pilots remarked.

"Its just so weird. How do we go from hating them to just up and accepting them? Did you see what that navigator

Meanwhile, back in the sick bay...

"I can't believe that you did _THAT_." Duero said as he addressed Bart. The navigator was wearing a red sundress, lipstick, blush, high heels and a long, blond wig. He had caused quite a stir when he came to the bridge.

"This is all your fault! You told me that story about having long hair would get the others to respect me more!"

"I merely wanted to imply that it takes time for relationships and that you have to _EARN_ one's respect. I didn't tell you to go out and dress like that."

The navigator face palmed as he realized that he had made a ridiculous mistake.

Meanwhile Naruto had found himself called to the bridge. Apparently there was some sort of encrypted distress signal and they were trying to figure out how to approach the matter. "I'll go," Naruto finally volunteered. "I'll use one of the back-up Vanguards and investigate the signal."

"You realize this could be a trap. We should send reinforcements with you just to be safe." B.C. suggested, but Naruto shook his head.

"No, if it is, I don't want to have to worry about protecting someone else. If I go, it'll be for reconnaissance purpose. If the enemy attacks, the Nirvana will need its full fighting force here. As far as the enemy knows, Virtue's pilot is out of commission and I highly doubt they would expose themselves so readily over a single Vanguard unit. Especially if they received information of the addition of another Gundam to our forces."

"And you're willing to take that risk?" Mango wasn't as willing to put anyone's life on the line, even if they volunteered.

"I'm 99% certain. If it was the enemy, I'm sure they realized that encrypting the message would have immediately made us suspicious. Captain, I ask for permission to carry out this search and recon mission on my own. I assure you I'll report back in two hours time with a full report."

"Captain?" B.C. prompted the captain.

"Very well." she knew the stubborn blond needed this. He had a desire, a strive to helping and protecting people. It would be better to go in with a plan then for him to recklessly charge in, blinded by pride. "You will be given two hours. If you haven't reported back by then, we will be sending a search party after you."

A grin broke out on Naruto's face. "Thanks Captain!" If only things could be that easy. "Kuso!" Naruto swore as he swerved out of the way of a sudden barrage of laser and particle beams. Distress signal his ass. At least it wasn't the Harvester, just a mysterious fleet of ships trying to blow him to shit.

He counted around fifty or so medium battle cruisers, but he didn't recognize the design of the ships. He assumed that they were from a planet that he hadn't visited before. He also glimpsed dots of light emerging from some of the vessels and correctly guessed that they were fighters. Naruto suddenly found himself jerked back as the Vanguard was heavily damaged by one of the laser fires, shutting down his ability to move.

Suddenly, the barrage stopped as suddenly as it had begun and the Vanguard began receiving a hail from the lead cruiser.

_"Attention unidentified fighter. We are of the Melanos Anti-Earth Defense Fleet. From what planet do you hail?"_

"Why the hell wouldn't you identify yourselves before you started shooting Temaes!"

_ "Tell us, do you serve the Harvesters?"_

"No I don't serve those bastards! Would have been really nice if you asked before you tried to blow me to shit!" thankfully enough Naruto was soon invited aboard the ship.

"I would like to apologize for our actions." The ship's captain said as Naruto was brought to the bridge. "We thought you were part of the Harvesting fleet."

The Shinobi noticed that a male and a female operator manned each of the bridge stations. He then nodded to the captain. "I understand, considering how much my crew has been harassed by them, I can see why you would be a bit testy. Though with your impressive set-up I don't see why you would send a distress signal."

"We thank you for your understanding." The human captain said. "Though I'm afraid there's been some sort of mix-up. You see, we hail from the world of Melanos, this defensive line has been set up for quite some time to defend against the menace and we have as of yet to encounter a problem that would require us to send out a distress signal."

Naruto's eyes narrowed in suspicion. _"But then...who in the heavens sent that messages?" _ Naruto sharply exhaled, he would deal with one thing at a time. "Captain, I ask for you and your world to aid my fellow passengers and in the fight against the Harvesters. I'm afraid I have some troubling news. The Harvesters have teamed up with a faction of people access to powerful war machines known as Gundams. These Gundams have the power to wipe out entire colonies with ease and it'll only be a matter of time before they wipe out your defensive line."

Murmuring began occurring among the crew. They couldn't believe such a thing existed. "And what proof do you have?"

"I too am...was a Gundam pilot. The enemy's machine destroyed mine, but my colleague back on the Nirvana has a Gundam as well. Only an alliance between our forces can hope to beat them. The Harvesters have already gotten a foothold in this part of the galaxy and it's only a matter of time before they overrun every human world in this sector. There are worlds which have been conquered or have given up. One planet was reduced to a wasteland and the other had no will to fight back. It'll only be a matter of time before the same happens to all human settlements if we don't stop them while we have the chance. "

Back on the Nirvana. "Captain, was it really wise to let Naruto go off on his own? If he's just in a Vanguard he's ill-equipped for any potential attack." Naruto's disappearance didn't go undetected for long. It definitely showed, seeing as the idea of leaving behind a kagebunshin to cover his disappearance didn't even cross his mind. Banking on the crew celebrating Paiway's one year induction into the crew only brought him so much time.

"What if something happened! What if he's hurt! What if the enemy has him?"

Manga found herself mentally cursing the blond, because having to assure the pilots that had become attached to the blond that he was going to come back safe was not how she wanted to spend her evening.

Back with Naruto the shinobi was in one of the fighter hangers, the Vanguard he borrowed was being recharged and serviced. Milling about the area were several dozen male-female pairs and the familiar atmosphere reminded Naruto of the Elemental Nations.

He was jarred from his thoughts when he was approached by someone. Turning his head he was greeted by a slender young woman who couldn't be any older then her late teens wearing a purple jumpsuit. She had straight, nut-brown hair and a very pleasant-looking face. She smiled at him as she held out her hand.

"Hello. My name is Seran and I'm one of the engineers. Whats your name?"

"Hello, my name is Naruto and it's nice to meet you." He extended his own hand and shook hers.

"I'm sorry, I hope I'm not prying bu you just seemed so...distracted. Are you worried about your comrades?"

Naruto let off a long, sad sigh before replying. "That's some of it yes. I lost something important in the last battle. It was a part of me and I didn't realize just how much it would have hurt to lost it."

"That's so horrible."

The two of them continued to chat. During the course of this discussion Naruto learned the Harvesters were after these people for their skin. Eventually they returned to the bridge when an alert went off.

"What in the world is that?!"

"One of the enemy flagships." The Melanos captain replied as the fleet began preparing for all-out war.

That huge, cucumber shaped thing was just _ONE_ of the enemy flagships?

"Our long-range surveillance teams have been tracking the movements of the Harvesters ever since they entered this part of the galaxy. They've spotted up to three flagships so far and it is possible that there's more. On its sides were rows and rows of ships. On its bow was a glowing, inverted Y-pattern. Flying escort for the behemoth were hundreds of thousands of Cube Fighters and Space Urchins.

Nothing sort of thousand of fighters or a hand full of battleships with several hundred ships for support. There was no way the Melanos Fleet would be able to stand up against them. "Captain, if you try to take the Harvester's forces on now there will be countless causalities."

"We cannot." The captain said solemnly.

"Look, I may not know your experience, but as someone who has also fought in a war for the sake of their world I know how hastiness can cause more harm then good. Please listen to me."

"We are all that's left to defend Melanos. We are the only line of defense. We rather stand and die then to flee like cowards."

Almost immediately, the Anti-Earth Defense Fleet returned fire with volley after volley of lasers, particle beams and missiles. Fighters swarmed out like maddened wasps as their human pilots threw everything they had at the enemy. However, despite the destructive forces being unleashed by the Melanos Fleet, the Harvesters kept on coming, totally ignorant of the losses they were sustaining. These beings were as unfeeling as machines, or a better analogy would be insects. Countless drones readily sacrificing their lives for the sake of their hive.

_**"Why are you standing around like an insect waiting to be squashed? Don't tell me you're reverting back into the brooding brat you once were!"  
**_

_"Of course not Kurama, I grew past that phase of my life. I know giving up isn't the answer, but its not that simple. There's not much I can do with the Vanguard. Besides, the parts from the Vanguard that could fuse with the Dreads have most likely been destroyed."_

_**"Then use what parts you can salvage from the machine or are you looking for an excuse to give up? You promised those girls you would come back, when have you been one to start intentionally breaking your promises?"**_

Naruto knew what would happen if he would left. It was unavoidable, him staying would only add one more loss. He made his way to the hanger where the Vanguard awaited. As he entered the area, a huge explosion rocked the ship. Walls were blown out and the floor trembled as flames started appearing.

The Melanos captain frowned as he looked at the tactical display. His fleet was being torn apart. Less than a third of their cruisers were left from the enemy's flagship canon and over half their fighters were swarmed by the cube ships. At the rate this battle was going they would be wiped out and Melanos would be left merciless at the hand of the Harvesters.

As the Vanguard exited the bay Naruto took one last sorrowful look at Melanos's forces. At the very least he and the Nirvana would return in time to protect the planet Melanos so the defense force's sacrifice wouldn't be in vein. Suddenly his scanners picked up three figures approaching the area at rapid speed. "Oh shit! Now what!?" Naruto swore, wondering how things could have possibly gotten this bad.


End file.
